


F is for Friends?

by FakeuForku



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: <- why is it when i try to tag the eyes emoji it changes to that, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - High School, Anxiety, Changbin simps over Chan, Cults, Death Jokes, Demons, Drinking, Dubious Consent, Everyone has cool powers, Ghosts, Go Fish, Jisung is loud, Kinda, Kissing, M/M, Magical shit, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Seo Changbin is a Mess, Swearing, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, and works at a convience store, beans, cat man!Minho, chan is a cooler version of elsa, chan vapes, changbin gets heald back a year, daisy pickers, gumiho!jeongin, ice d00d!chan, incubus!Hyunjin, intense monopoly games, jeongin's old lol, jisung has anxiety, jisung hates bugs, magic is actually just energy being manipulated, nature spirit!Seungmin, or are you?, sorry changbin ur a human, star!felix, strange dreams with semi important meanings, witch!Jisung, 🤣
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:34:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 52,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27716864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FakeuForku/pseuds/FakeuForku
Summary: Changbin’s made it twenty years through life without needing friends, so why would he need them now?Changbin would be a normal high schooler, aside the fact that he can see ghosts. Not only can he see the transparent pals, but he is aware of most the supernatural activity around him. Whenever he tried to bring it up to someone, they would either run away from him or look at him weirdly.After getting cursed (it really wasn't his fault), well, now everyone avoids him. Which is fine. Really. Completely fine. Now he can graduate high school without any distractions and figure out what to do with the rest of his life.So why won’t his new seat mate leave him alone?
Relationships: Bang Chan/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Han Jisung | Han/Seo Changbin, Hwang Hyunjin/Kim Seungmin, Hwang Hyunjin/Lee Felix, Hwang Hyunjin/Seo Changbin
Comments: 60
Kudos: 145





	1. Don't build towers out of canned beans

'You'll never guess what happened to me today!'

'Oh?'

'Really?'

'What happened, what happened!'

'I bet you something better happened to me.'

'My auntie called me, the one that owns her own fashion line. She said she'd be willing to have me come live with her for a year, in Paris.' 

'Wow!'

'Oh my god!'

'So lucky!'

'Well, my uncle-'

Changbin didn’t believe in luck. If luck existed, then he wouldn't have to deal with the same group of obnoxious high school girls at the convenience store he worked at nearly daily. If luck existed, then he wouldn’t even be working at the convenience store in the first place. He might even have been just like the high school girls that come to annoy him every day. Done with high school, a little spoiled, comfortable and cringy within his own group of friends. Hopefully, he would never become this annoying, but he would rather be a bit of an unliked presumptuous brat than where he is now.

Actually, no he wouldn't. Better be woke than ignorant.

The girls started screeching at the corner table they had claimed. Changbin started calling them the Glitter Gang in his head since at least three of them were always covered in the stuff. When was the last time they ever bought anything? A week ago? Changbin knew they only ever came in to gawk at his attractive coworker that came in after him. And while Seonghwa never chased them away, Changbin couldn’t bring himself to resent the guy. He was one of the few people that actually looked his way or spoke to him anymore. 

_How many cans of beans can I stack on top of one another before disaster strikes-_

Several things happened at once. The door rang, Seonghwa appeared, one of the Glitter Gang Girls grabbed onto her friend and pushed her in Seonghwa's direction, that mischievous spirit that's been following Changbin for weeks materialized, right next to his canned bean tower. 

Oh boy, this was gonna be bad. Should he do anything? What was the worst thing that could happen?

Seonghwa gets permanent brain damage via a can of beans and one of the Glitter gang gets possessed and tries to kill Changbin or set the store on fire, or both. 

Yeah, he should do nothing. 

The girl 'tripped', nearly plowing Seonghwa down right as the bean tower fell over. Seonghwa managed to twist himself and the girl that was half-standing away from the flying cans of beans, but also managed to twist the girl’s arm. A can of beans caught Changbin in the shoulder, and he smashed his forehead into the register. 

Yeah, luck didn't exist. Not for Changbin. 

* * *

It all started a little less than a year ago when he walked in on the vice principal trying to eat a student. His teacher told him to take a few papers to the teacher’s office, so he made the long journey from his classroom at the back of the school to the cluster of offices on the other side of the campus. The teacher’s office was empty, but strange noises were coming from one of the other closed doors. Changbin assumed it was an aggressive phone call to a certain student’s parents (there were a few notorious for starting food fights and selling mysterious pills behind the bleachers) but then he heard a second higher pitched voice say something back in a tone that didn't sound normal.

Looking back on it, Changbin should have thought through the situation better. What he should have done was open the door with his phone recording and ready, saying he was there to deliver papers from a teacher. When he saw the vice-principal with red eyes and fangs trying to feed off one of the student council members, he should have called someone for help, maybe thrown something at the vice-principal, run out of the room with the girl. 

But noooooooo.

He just _had_ to try and play hero, he just _had_ to try and help. What he did do was stare at the scene long enough to get noticed by both parties, and then when he tried to tackle the VP, he got thrown into a desk. Who knew vampires were as strong as the legends said? It was already proven that they weren’t deathly allergic to the sun. 

While Changbin was being body slammed into a desk, it gave the female student enough time to escape, screeching throughout the halls. Apparently, it caused enough commotion so the VP couldn’t eat him in the female student’s stead, but it did give him enough time to curse him. That moment still haunts Changbin at night.

 _As long as your friendless self roams you will be shunned and turned away from all._ Or something. 

Changbin was too terrified at that moment when it was happening to remember the actual wording, but it was something along the lines of _everyone’s gonna hate your ass and avoid you for the rest of your miserable existence._

And that’s how things have been ever since. 

He didn't notice the change at first. It was subtle, people would cross the street when he turned the corner, his classmates wouldn’t meet his eyes when he spoke to them. Then it turned into people whispering not so quietly behind his back. Stuff like _Why is he here?_ And _When will he leave? No one likes him. Doesn’t he know he’s not wanted?_ From there it escalated, and rumours of him assaulting the female student even emerged. The faculty got wind of some of the rumours and tried to expel him on the female student’s behalf. No one bothered to fact check the story, no one asked him for his opinion. 

So he dropped out before they could expel him. Changbin knew it wasn't the smartest move to make, and if anything it only made him look more guilty. But he was fed up with everyone there and didn't really have any friends that bothered standing up for him. Even the student he saved seemed to ‘conveniently forget’ everything that happened that day. 

Instead of immediately trying to find another high school to accept him, he decided to take the rest of the year off and work. Give the curse time to fade, let people forget about what happened, give himself time to recover and move as far away as he could. 

He had already moved apartments to something cheaper and slightly sketchier on the other side of town and had been working at the sad convenience store for nearly four months. Changbin supposed it was time to start looking at new schools, but that came with that whole explaining why he dropped out of his previous high school, especially at his age. And it’s not like his grades were stellar either. But he did promise his mother he would at least try to finish high school. 

‘You good, Bin?’ Seonghwa’s voice brought him back. He was still crouched behind the register regretting his decision to even come to work today in the first place. 

‘I’m fantastic.’

‘See kid, this is why you have no friends.’

‘You are barely a year older than me. You have no place calling me ‘kid’.’

‘Respect your elders, _kiddo._ ’

‘I’ll start when they earn it.’ Changbin snorted.

‘And who’s idea was it to build a tower out of cans?’

‘It’s not like I knocked it over or anything.’

‘What did then? Hmm?’

Changbin opened his mouth, then closed it. It’s not like he could tell Seonghwa _the creepy spirit that’s been stalking me. Scold him instead._ Not only did it sound like an excuse, but it also made Changbin sound crazy. 

‘Sorry, Seonghwa-ssi.’ The hardest thing Changbin had learned from everything was when to give up and bite his tongue. If there were no repercussions, Changbin would fight everyone who lashed out at him. But sometimes, it just wasn’t worth it. Whether it be a conversation not worth having or an effort that would be wasted, not all arguments and fights were worth getting into. While Changbin had _known_ this, he never really understood the weight of those words until he had to put them into practice. 

Changbin was saved from further conversation by someone else walking into the shop. His shift was over, he could go home and start the long process of searching for another high school to accept him.

The guy that had entered earlier ran up to Seonghwa, clearly worked up about something. He spoke to him rapidly, the only words Changbin picked up were _Yunho, attacked, left him,_ and _cheese balls._ Changbin must have misheard that last one, but Seonghwa looked panicked, said something back to the shorter guy and started towards Changbin. 

‘Do you mind covering my shift? I know I just got here, but something happened. I’ll cover for you whenever you need-'

‘It’s fine. I understand, don’t keep your friend waiting.’

‘Thank you. Really. I owe you.’ With that Seonghwa ran out of the shop. 

Great. Now to chase away the Glitter Gang. The girl who fell into him blinked at the door that Seonghwa had just run out of, then glared at Changbin, like it was _his_ fault his co-worker had run out.

‘If you’re not gonna buy anything, beat it. He’s not coming back.’ Without waiting for a response, Changbin went straight into the back room to grab boxes to start restocking. 

* * *

Seonghwa never came through on his promise, but he did feel bad about it. _I’m really sorry I never paid you back for that one time._ He said two weeks later when he quit. He then insisted he give Changbin his number in case he ever needed a favour. 

‘It’s not really a favour, more of a question, uh, but what high school did you go to?’

Changbin was eternally grateful when Seonghwa didn’t ask any questions or pull any weird faces, all he did was tell him the name of the high school he graduated from in the spring. 

‘Is it close by?’

‘Mmm, kinda? From the store, it’s not a bad distance if you have a bike.’

‘Did-did you like it?’

‘Did I like my high school? I guess? Are you asking generally? I’ve never really given the subject thought. It wasn’t astounding, per se, but I didn’t dread going every morning either.’

‘Yeah...yeah. Thanks, Seonghwa-ssi. I’ll use your favour one day.’

Seonghwa cracked a smile. ‘Well, don't be a stranger. Good luck with the beauty pageant wannabes.’

When Seonghwa left the shop that day, Changbin felt like life was finally looking up. He finally had a direction instead of working listlessly in a convenience store until he couldn’t handle it anymore. _Mum, I can finish high school. I’ll graduate. Just like I promised._

But all that goes up, must come down.

* * *

While transferring in the middle of a school year was not ideal, Changbin couldn’t deny the fact that he was behind. He was lucky the school even accepted him in the end, with his slightly sketchy student report and grades that left a lot to be desired.

The questions though were the worst. _What caused you to transfer here? What caused you to leave your old school? Where do you want to go with your future? Where do you see yourself in five years? What about your parents? What do they think of your future plans? Do they influence you in any way? Why do your grades look the way they do?_

They all blurred into one in Changbin’s head: _What’s wrong with you?_ It didn't help that the assistant principal kept sending him repulsed glares every time he said something she didn't like. The kids he passed in the hall were not much better. Most of them avoided him, which was all he could ask for. A few of them tried to size him up, seeing his height (or lack thereof) as an advantage to them if they were to pick a fight. A few kids tried to talk to him out of pity, but it was usually more for them than it was for him. Talking to Changbin was their good deed of the day. It was usually followed up by a brave friend or boyfriend to reassure that their companion only came to speak with him out of pity, and to stay away. Some were harsher than others, some punched harder than others, but the best thing for Changbin to do was bite his tongue and run away.

He hated it. _So_ much. _This isn’t who I am, this isn’t who I want to be. But this is what I have become_.

It didn’t help that he was far behind academically. The icing on his sad sad life cake. When he was transferred in, he was shoved into the junior class. It was intended to let Changbin take it easy, settle in, and be able to spend more time catching up on what he needed to, but all it really accomplished was to further crush his already low opinion of himself. 

_It’s better than staying at that store._ Of course, he still had the job but was working fewer shifts now to fit school in. Ever since Seonghwa quit, the Glitter Gang had stopped coming around, thank god, but he now had no one to trade bizarre stories with. Apparently, ghosts have schedules as well, because he saw different ghosts and spirits every shift. Thankfully the bean can tower disrupted had vanished and not reappeared since that day.

The one solace this high school seemed to offer, was a surprising lack of supernatural activity. No ghosts wandered the hallway, no vampiric assistant principals (although this one seemed to always have a disgusted expression), there wasn’t even a paranormal activity club like his last high school had. It was refreshing. While at school, he could focus solely on not flunking out and avoiding people. 

By the time his second attempt at junior year had ended, Changbin had managed to pull his grades from solidly mediocre to the upper end of average, thought about (and flaked out on) texting Seonghwa four times, and came up with a foolproof system to escape getting beat up. 

With his senior year around the corner, Changbin was oddly excited to be _done,_ especially after repeating part of a year. His senior class was mostly different kids from his junior year class, which he was completely fine with. He was more than ok with being the stereotypical emo kid in the back corner of the room that socialized with no one. The one thing he did appreciate about his junior class was everyone kept to themselves, or their cliques, for the most part. It seemed his new senior class had all the outgoing kids, which slightly terrified Changbin. He already had a fear of group participation. If he was stuck with a cheery, sunny, happy-go-lucky teacher as well as loud kids, he might be looking at changing high schools again. 

A group of girls near the front of the room squeal when they all see they’d be in the same class, a group of guys near the door were laughing loudly with one another, everyone seemed to be speaking twelve decibels louder than they need to be. Especially the one kid with the-

‘LEEEEEEE FELIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIX!’ Yeah, that kid.

Felix, the kid who had just walked in the doorway, just stared at the loud kid with squishy cheeks who announced his name so gracefully to the whole world. ‘Ya, Han Jisung! Did you have caffeine this morning? No one is this excited on a Monday.’

‘I swear, I only had two!’

Felix gives the kid (his friend? maybe?) a hard stare. ‘Two _what_?’

‘Two coffees...with three shots each?’

Felix mutters something under his breath and crosses the room to pull his friend into an adjacent desk one row up from the sad emo corner spot Changbin claimed. 

_Please don’t turn around. Please don’t turn around. Please- godammit._

‘Hi! I’m Jisung. I don’t think I’ve seen you around, are you a new student? You probably don’t have many friends here yet. Wait, shit, that was kinda insensitive. I meant it in a good way! Not, like, that you don’t have any friends. I’m sure you have plenty of friends. But you probably don’t know many people here and it’s easy to get lost and-'

‘Jisung. Hey, Jisung.’ Jisung's friend grabbed his arm and pulled him away from Changbin. 

_Of course._

‘I don’t think he wants us to speak to him.’

‘Whaddya mean, Felix? He just looks lonely.’

_Another pity conversation, joy._

‘He also looks like he wants us to fuck off. I don’t think he’s a new kid. I think he’s the kid with all the rumours around him. You know, the scary one?’

‘And since when were you one to listen to rumours?’

‘It’s not that, it’s just-’

‘Just what?’

‘He gives off bad vibes.’

‘Bad vibes.’

‘I don't have a good feeling about him. You know, sixth sense type of thing.’

Changbin wondered when they would notice he could hear everything he was saying. Jisung looked like he wanted to say something else on the matter, but then another kid Felix apparently recognized walked into the classroom and his whole discomfort with Changbin was forgotten. ‘Hyunjin!’

Hyunjin looked surprised. ‘Oh, what! No way! I thought they’d be dead set on separating us until we graduated. Our teachers gonna hate us.’

Jisung turned back to Changbin. ‘Ignore Felix, he’s kinda weird around people he doesn't know, don't take it to heart. Feel free to join us for lunch or study sessions at any time!’

Huh, that was strange. Usually, those who brought themselves to speak with him either found a reason to excuse themselves a few minutes into the conversation or tried to argue with him about something. Never had he been invited to anything. Maybe his curse was slowly wearing off.

Jisung seemed to be the only one though, the rest of the kids in his class avoided him thoroughly, and found ways to not have to interact or speak with him. 

But Changbin was fine with it. He was used to it, and he would vibe in his little corner space all by himself just fine until-

‘We’ll be starting group projects today.’

Aw shit.

It was just over a month into the school year when group projects started, this was going to be a disaster. He had somehow made it throughout his entire junior year without having to do any work or projects with other kids. Working with others meant social interaction, which meant he was either going to be doing the project alone, or not at all. 

‘I’ll let you pick your groups for this one, I’m no monster-’

Oh, the irony.

‘Do you wanna be in our group?’

‘Jisung!’

Changbin stared at Jisung with wide eyes. He was planning on asking the teacher if he could get away with doing the project alone.

‘What, Felix? It’s groups of four, we only have three.’

‘I think Chanhee wanted to-’

‘Chanhee already has a group.’ He turned back to Changbin. ‘So?’

‘Er, Sure.’

‘Bro-’

‘Great. I’ll go write our names down. You’re name’s Changbin right?’

All Changbin could do was nod.

‘Felix, give our new friend our numbers will you?’

Felix did not look like he wanted to give him all their numbers. 

‘Hi.’ The other kid said with a forced smile. ‘I’m Hyunjin. That’s Felix. The loud one is Jisung- actually, I guess we’re all loud. When would work best for you to work on this? I have club activities every other day after classes, and Felix has weird nerd stuff-’

‘For the last time, student council isn’t nerd stuff, you pleb.’

‘I work most days after school. If you’re fine with meeting up after that, I’m free.’

‘When do you get off?’ Jisung asked, sitting down. 

‘Nine.’

‘Weekends?’

‘I work weekends too, but I get off at three then.’

‘We could try to meet up Saturday afternoon if that works for you two.’ Jisung asked Hyunjin and Felix. 

‘Yeah, works for me.’

‘Sure.’

‘Cool! Changbin, give me your phone.’ Soon he had three new numbers and many annoying notifications for a Line chat the others would not stop spamming emotes in.

‘Where did you find your stickers, Bin? These are cute!’

Stickers?

‘One of my old coworkers signed me up for a Line account after he found out I didn't have one. Whatever I have on there is his doing.’

‘Well, you need more. The default ones are too basic. Does meeting up at my place on Saturday work?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Sure.’

‘Where do you live?’

Jisung blinked up at Changbin like he didn't expect any more questions from him. ‘Ah. I’ll send you the address. Let me know if you need a ride or anything.’

‘Uh, ok. Thanks.’

As it turned out, Jisung didn't live far from the convenience store he worked at. Changbin thought it was luck that he’d never run into any of them at work, and then remembered there was a convenience store on nearly every corner of the block. There was probably a closer one to his apartment. 

But, luck had no favour with Changbin, and it probably wouldn't ever.


	2. I'm blue, da boo di da boo yikes

After his shift on Saturday, he headed over to the address that had been sent to him. Just like the text had said, he had been able to waltz into the building with no codes or questions asked. Jisung's apartment door was also unlocked, and Changbin was able to stroll right in. ‘Jisung?’ Was the kid even home? He felt awkward just walking in, but Jisung had mentioned in his message that he probably wouldn't hear him if he knocked and everyone just walked straight into his place anyway.

Jisung had a small but cozy apartment with more stuff than it could comfortably hold. The walls were lined haphazardly and makeshift shelves that looked ready to collapse any minute, the shelves stacked with colourful jars and books. On the ceiling, there was a lunar cycle poster tacked up. Christmas lights were strung around nearly everything as makeshift fairy lights, despite it being the beginning of spring. There was a curtain separating the kitchen from the living room, leaving the only place to go a small hallway to the left. The hallway led to three doors: one of them was closed, another showed a small bathroom, and the other was half open with blue lights coming from behind it. 

Changbin probably should have announced himself again, or knocked, but like the intelligent bean he was, he stuck his head in the room first. The blue lights seemed to be coming from a mirror Jisung was staring at. Were they? Changbin tried to follow them with his eyes, but all he ended up staring at was Jisung’s hands. 

_Are the blue lights coming from Jisung’s hands? Is he like me?_

‘Jisung?’

‘Fucking hell!’ Jisung jumped at Changbin's voice, knocking into the mirror he was staring at and falling over a stool. ‘How long have you been there?’

‘Not long. Sorry, you said the door was always open and that I could just walk in. You didn't answer the first time so I went looking for you.’

‘No, no, you’re good. How much, uh, how much did you see?’

‘The lights? I saw them flashing. Are you practising for a light show or something? Please tell me you're not into eating glo sticks. I know the packaging says its non-toxic, but I’m still not sure-’

'No! None of that, it’s, uhhh, more of a personal project that I’m not quite done with yet. Maybe I’ll show you when I have it more completed.’ Jisung smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.

Changbin just nodded, trying not to be put off. ‘Cool, when are the others getting here? I’m not so late I missed them, right?’

‘Nah, Felix and Hyunjin sent a heads up saying they’d be a bit late. Anything you wanna do in the meantime?’

Changbin just shrugged. ‘I can get started and divide up work.’

‘So boring Binnie. What do you do for fun?’ Jisung pouted. 

_Binnie? Fun? I talk to the spirits I pretend I can't see when I’m really bored, but they always seem to remember I can see them so I usually keep my mouth shut._

‘I don't really have any hobbies. School and work take up all my time.’

‘What? That’s so boring! Here, let me teach you how to play my favourite game.’

Jisung dragged him to his living room and dug through a pile of junk in a corner until he emerged with a decorated wooden box. ‘I’m not sure how into card games you are, so I’ll teach you one of my favourites!’

Inside the box was the most elaborate deck of cards Changbin had ever seen. ‘Wow. Did you make these? They're really... different. In a good way! I've just never seen hand made cards before. These are really cool.’

Jisung beamed up at him. ‘Why, actually, I did. I had some help from a friend with painting them, but I mostly made them myself, the box too.’ He started to spread the cards out into small piles and restack the deck. ‘Say, can you shuffle? I’ve never been very good at it.’

‘I’m- I’m alright.’ Jisung handed the deck over. The cards were thicker and rougher than a normal fifty-two card deck, and there were more cards. ‘Are you- do you make your own things a lot? You seem very crafty.’

‘What gave it away? The piles of junk everywhere?’

‘I don't know if I’d call it all _junk_ -’

‘I know this place is a mess, but I have no will or reason to organize it. I know where everything is.’

‘Oh no, you're one of _those_ people.’

‘Oh?’

‘The organized-chaos type. I have no problem with the mess, my apartment is in about the same shape. But, I’m truly impressed with how much stuff you were able to get up on the walls.’

‘Please don't ask how I got it there, or how it’s staying. I don't know either.’

Changbin laughed. ‘Here, I think that’s good enough?’ He asked, handing the deck back.

‘Ah, yes, wonderful. Ok, the rules are a little weird, but that makes it all the more fun! First, I’ll spread out the deck and have you pick a card first. Then, uh... wait I’m dumb, pick out six cards total, then I’ll do the same.’

‘Any cards?’

‘Why, yes. Pick a card, any card.’ Jisung trilled in an exaggerated voice. ‘Then, lay them out in the order you chose them. Once we have them lined up, we’ll flip them over. Each card has a certain value associated with it, and whoever’s added value of all six cards is greater, wins. If it’s a tie, then we both draw an additional card from the deck and depending on how you play, you can either see which card from the deck is higher or add everything in again. The winner gets to keep the stack of cards, and the game ends... well it ends whenever you don’t wanna play anymore, but the winner is the person with the most cards.’

‘So it’s like a beefed-up, classroom-friendly version of war?’

Jisung shot him an offended look. ‘Don't compare my game with your plebeian standards, for I am much above them.’

‘I will do whatever I want as long as you’re trying to get me to do basic math.’

Changbin turned over his cards and was amazed again at how intricate the pictures on the cards were. ‘It’s so cool you painted these.’

‘They’re aite, I guess, and I did have help.’

The first card Changbin turned over was what looked like a wolf crossing a road lined with trees to a field filled with pink, bushy flowers, with a giant red 4 in the middle. The second was a cracked vase holding a bunch of blue and purple flowers with an 11 inside the pottery. The third one was a symbol that looked like a pentagram with a spider inside, a 17 resting on the spider's appendage. The fourth was a tree surrounded by white, dandelion-looking flowers, a 1 inside the tree’s trunk. The fifth card he turned over was covered with a complicated rope and pulley system Changbin couldn't quite follow, the rope pulling up an empty basket with a 15 on it. The last card he turned over was a yellow flower that Changbin couldn't name being crushed by a hand.

Changbin was about to make another comment on how cool the cards were when he spotted a spider slowly making its way down from the ceiling near Jising’s shoulder. ‘You’re good with bugs, right?’

‘Absolutely not, why?’

‘Oh, uh, it's just- you painted a really nice spider on this one card-’

‘I made Seungmin do that one. I hate bugs, especially spiders. The less I have to look at them, the better. The little brat created that one purpose.’ He shuddered.

‘So would now be a good time to tell you about the spider near your shoulder, or-’

‘WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY SOMETHING SOONER!’ Changbin had never seen a person move so fast. While launching himself backwards, Jisung kneed the table they were sitting at, and rolled into one of his precarious wall setups. 

Changbin stood up with the intention to help, he really did, but when someone stands up and forgets there's a low table in front of them, they tend to trip, and that’s just what Changbin did: faceplant. 

‘Yo, Jisung- look out!’

The wall display that Jisung had rolled into a few paragraphs ago was swaying dangerously, and finally decided to topple over.

_Aw, hell, this is all my fault. I made a friend, found the one person who didn't hate me, and he ended up getting crushed under his poorly stacked furniture. His friends are even coming over soon, now they're really gonna hate me._

But instead of the awful crash of trinkets and planks of wood crushing his newfound friend Changbin was anticipating, anything that fell seemed to stop an inch from Jisung and gently lowered itself to the ground. The blue lights were back, and they seemed to surround Jisung this time.

‘I really need to get this secured. This is not earthquake friendly at all.’ Jisung wasn’t even phased like this happened every other day. He stood up, carefully picked his way out of the pile of junk around him, and held his hands out, the blue lights engulfing them. Stuff started floating back onto the wall, in a more haphazard manner than before. 

Jisung persistently started at his incipiently composed chaotic disaster and commenced to swap and rearrange a few objects, grumbling to himself about how nothing seemed to stack correctly.

‘Try swapping the toaster with the round thing. Things will stack better then because it’ll give the ironing board a flat surface to lay on.’

‘Ah, thanks Changbin.’ Then it seemed to hit Jisung that Changbin was still there, watching the whole thing go down. ‘Uh, can we pretend this is completely normal and everyone can do this?’

‘Uhh, I think the average person has better Tetris skills than you do. I mean, who puts round things on the bottom?’

‘Aha, sure. Laugh it up. I get enough shit from Felix about my storage preferences. I don't care if it looks bad, I can find everything this way!’

‘It does explain why everything...stays?’

‘Argh, I don't wanna do this!’ Jisung carded his hands through his hair and stared at his shoes. 

‘Then, don't?’ Changbin said hopefully. If there was anything he had learned about supernatural people with otherworldly powers, it was to be patient with them and not to provoke them. When they thought they were cornered or got scared, they lashed out. And that usually lead to the death of the innocent human that had stumbled across them. ‘I, uh, swear I won't say anything? I don't really have anyone to tell, so uh-’ He trailed off not quite sure what else to say. ‘Your secret's safe? With me?’

Jisung cracked a small smile. ‘I’m sure it is Binnie.’ His hands and eyes started to glow that bright blue again. ‘Now don’t move, this won't hurt.’

Before Changbin could move, Jisung was in front of him with his hands on either side of his head. ‘Please don't kill me.’ He whispered in a desperate last attempt. 

Well, look at the bright side, if he died, he might be able to reunite with his mother. 

The last thing Changbin remembered was an _I’m sorry_ and blue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy thanksgiving!  
> thanks for reading, stay safe out there kiddoz!


	3. Beans break Spleens

‘Jisung!....tell me...why...toasters...’

Changbin woke to a splitting headache, and voices around him. 

‘What do you mean?’ Was that... Felix?

‘Shh, he’s probably gonna be waking up soon. Keep your voice down.’

‘Ji, you have no right to tell Felix or me to be quiet. You are by far the loudest person in all of South Korea.’ Hyunjin?

‘Ok, yeah, sure. I’m a loud bitch, but just- shhh.’

‘Fine. What now?’ Felix whispered.

‘We gauge what he remembers?’

What he remembers? What did Jisung do to him? All it seemed to accomplish was give him a splitting headache.

‘I- yeah. I don't think I overdid it. I _hope_ I didn’t overdo it. I don’t- I just-’

‘We get it Jiji. It’ll be ok. You did the right thing.’

‘Yeah. I hope I did.’ Was that...sniffling?

Changbin wanted to get up, he really did. But if his head hurt this much sitting down, how bad would it be when he stood up? Should he say something?

‘Hey, I think he’s- Hey, Binnie? How’re you feeling?’

Changbin groaned. ‘I feel like I was dropped on my head.’ When he tried to open his eyes, but the light made everything worse. ‘What happened? I’ve never been this hungover.’ _Act like everything is normal and the past few hours, just didn't happen. Perfect, what could go wrong?_

Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Murphy’s law, right? Or was it Socrates? 

‘Hyunjin, can you get the light?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Hey, Binnie?’ Jisung asked, closer than he was before. ‘Do-’ He paused. ‘Do you want anything?’

‘Water? Paracetamol? Ibuprofen? Oxyphenbutazone? Dihydrocodeine? Pethidine? Wait, nevermind, I think that one comes with severe side effects.’

‘Bro, I think I have a headache now from all your big words.’ Felix shuddered.

‘We have Aspirin?’

‘That'd be great, thanks Jisung.’ Jisung seemed to relax at that and left to raid his kitchen.

‘Do, uh, do we still wanna work on the project today?’ Hyunjin asked. ‘It’s completely fine if we put it off-’

‘You just don't wanna do it.’ Felix accused.

‘Bin doesn't feel well. I don't like doing work, to begin with, and I know doing school work when your sick is even worse. We have a good amount of time to get it done, and we can split up work another day and do the individual portions throughout the week. And then meet up next weekend? To like, put it all together?’

‘Wow, I’m surprised. You actually have good ideas sometimes.’

‘Shut up! I’m a natural genius!’

‘What happened to the IQ test where you got a negative score?’

‘I’m just too smart for the computers of the 21st century. No one alive is brilliant enough to truly admire my- urgk-’ Hyunjin was cut off when Felix tried to suffocate him with one of Jisung’s couch pillows. By the way, they started rolling around, Changbin grew concerned they’d hit one of the walls. _Nothing looks stable in here._

‘Jisoo forking crackers, stop being children in my apartment. You’re going to break something. Sorry, Bin. Don't mind them. Are you hungry? The bottle says you shouldn’t take any of these on an empty stomach, but I also heard the instructions weren't always-’

Felix emerged from the pile with him and Hyunjin. ‘What he’s saying is his mother was an anti-vaxxer and didn't believe in modern medicine! Ow, fuck, Hyunjin fucking stop you _whore_ -’

‘Uh, yeah. Something like that. We, uh, were poor and didn't really have money for modern medicine so we always used herbal remedies.’

‘That’s more than fine.’ Changbin sat up and took the water from Jisung. ‘I can take these straight up, but uh, herbal tea sounds nice? If you want to! Make it? This- this is fine too. Thank you.’

‘Tea! I can make tea! Binnie, you’re a genius!’ With that, he ran off back into the kitchen.

He looked over at Hyunjin and Felix, who was still rolling around on the floor. ‘Should I be, I dunno, concerned?’

They both looked towards the kitchen, and simultaneously replied, ‘Naaaah’, which only made Changbin more worried.

As it turned out, Jisung’s remedial tea wasn't bad at all: it tastes like citrus and flowers (which was a good thing, who knew fucking flowers of all things could taste good). But the best thing was that the effects were nearly instantaneous. ‘I have no idea what you put in this, but it’s amazing.’

Jisung smiled. ‘Glad I could help. I usually make it whenever I feel under the weather.’

‘Thank you. What happened?’

‘Ah, uh-’ Jisung suddenly wouldn’t meet his eyes.

‘Ji said you hit your head on something. I wouldn’t be surprised if something fell off these damn walls of his and knocked you out. We were gonna meet up for a group project, but Felix and I got caught up with student council things last minute. By the time we got here, you were knocked out.’ Hyunjin summed up for him. ‘If you can't tell, he feels really guilty about everything.’

Changbin waved his arm. ‘It’s fine, these things happen. Once I was hit in the head with a can of beans.’

‘Beans?’ Felix looked like he was trying to contain a laugh, but he was failing miserably.

‘Yeah, beans. It hurt.’

* * *

After Jisung had asked Changbin a million times if he was ok (to which he always got the same answer of _I’m fine, thank you_ back) he convinced Hyunjin to drive the shorter male home, still unconvinced he was ok to walk.

The second Jisung’s front door closed behind Hyunjin and Changbin, Felix had turned on the squishy cheeked boy, forced him to sit down on the couch, and, ‘Explain every fucking thing that happened in the thirty minutes Changbin was here with you and we weren't.’

‘Listen, Fe, he just walked in-’

‘And whose fault is that?!’

‘No no, look, you don't _understand-_ You and Hyunjin- You two can just walk in. I set up wards so that my lazy ass wouldn’t have to remember to lock the door all the time. The wards read intentions. So like, when you two walk in, the wards detect that you two are my friends and that you have no ill will towards me. Because Changbin was able to just walk in, either my wards are down, he’s a human with pure intentions, or magic doesn't work on him.’

‘Yeah, I get that Seungie. I doubt your wards are faulty because you wouldn't have been able to use magic if they were. And even if Changbin was the purest kid out there, which I highly doubt he is, wouldn’t your wards still lock him out because he’s an unfamiliar aura? Plus, A human? Immune to magic? Bitch, magic exists to separate our world from theirs. Its sole purpose is to _work_ on humans. Also, your memory spell killed him. You must have gone way overkill for him to have that much of a headache. It’s a wonder he still remembered our names.’

‘Listen, I panicked! I hit the wall, but there was a spider, which I tried to- but then the wall- and then I- it all fell, and- it was just instinct, and I think I panicked-’

‘Jisung, Jisungie. It’s ok, everything will be fine. Changbin’s ok now, and your magic is safe. Breathe.’

‘He-' Jisung took a deep breath. 'He didn't seem too freaked out. When he saw my magic.’ Felix shot him a strange look. ‘When he walked in, the first time. I was working on the mirror, and I think he saw the lights from my energy. He thought I was practising a light show. A _light show_. And after the wall-'

‘What happened with you and the walls?’

‘So there was a spider-'

‘Ah, got it. Say no more.’

‘Hey! Anyways, uh, spider. I moved too fast and hit the wall. Like, half the stuff fell, and it was more of a reaction than anything. And- Bin, he- he didn’t really seem phased, ya know?’

‘So you think he’s like us?’

‘The cards- I got a reading on him. It was brief, so I wouldn’t fully trust it-’ 

‘When have your readings ever been accurate? Your _cards_ told Hyunjin he was Satan’s incarnate.’

‘Well, were they wrong? Changbin, he's- he’s either bad luck, or had a bunch of bad luck. As in he's cursed, or will curse us. It wasn't clear, but when are they ever? I think it's that he's cursed because the next cards said he's lonely. He's been alone for quite some time, but he also has a deep-set loneliness within him, and despite that, he's considerate of those around him.’

‘What were the cards exactly?’ Felix asked. 

‘Do you seriously expect me to remember them?’

‘You set them aside, didn’t you?’

‘Ha, about that...’

‘Jisung!’

Jisung hung his head in guilt. ‘Look, all I wanted was to do a read on him, but I didn't want to straight out tell him _Hey, let me read your chi through a bunch of handmade cards_. I didn't wanna scare him off, my place is already a mess!’

‘So, what did you end up doing?’

‘I made up a game on the spot that had him picking out his cards first, but then they got shoved into a pile and reshuffled.’

‘Ugh.’ Felix ground his palms into his eyes. ‘You’re impossible. Seungie, I swear you're going to give me an aneurysm one day.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Jisung said quietly. ‘I just wanted to be friends with him. Instead, everything’s a mess, and I don't know how-

‘I understand, really, I do. If you think he’s, ya know, like us, why not have him meet Chan hyung and Minho hyung?’

‘How would we make that happen?’ Jisung snorted. ‘Hey, Bin. I know you saw me do magical lights the other day, most of which you probably don't even remember, but it’s fine. So I want you to meet some of my intimidating, older friends. Just as a precaution to make sure you pass their vibe check. Passing my door’s wasn't enough.’

‘Well, Hyunjin did say that we should try to meet up again next Saturday to get stuff done on this project. Maybe we should invite everyone over after, as like a meet-our-new-friend type thing.’

‘Yeah, sure, great idea. But what if he doesn't want to, or has plans after he works on stuff?’

‘I guess you’ll never know if you never ask. You have his Line, and you sit close to him in class. Either ask now or just ask him on Monday.’

* * *

_Blue. Blue everywhere. Changbin slowly pushed his way into an apartment and everything was bathed in blue light. ‘Hello? Jisung?’ The further he went into the room, the thicker the blue became. It melted from light into smoke into the very air he was breathing._

_The short male turned down the hallway, more blue. Inside one of the rooms, was Jisung staring into a mirror, surrounded by the blue._

_‘Step into the mirror.’ He said. ‘And you see it all.’_

_‘See what?’ Jisung started to advance towards Changbin, making the wary male slowly back up, only stopping when he ran into the door frame._

_‘Binnie, I’m sorry.’ Jisung whispered. He reached his hands out, lightly grabbing either side of Changbin’s head. ‘When you wake up, you won't remember any of this. Don't forget about me.’ The blue flared up, so thick he could barely see the body Jisungs arms were attached to._

_‘Forget.’_

_Jisung used the grip on his head to throw him through the body length mirror. Instead of smacking right into the surface and shattering it, he went straight through it, the quicksilver ice-cold as he passed through it. The world on the other side of the mirror was pitch black._

_‘Jisung?’ And echo-y. 'Hello?'_

_Voices started to fill the void. Was this what being blind was like? You could hear everything but see nothing?_

_‘Can you believe him?’_

_‘Why would he do something like that?’_

_‘He never seemed like a good person, but now I know to stay away from him.’_

_‘Ugh, it’s always the quiet kids.’_

_Suddenly he found himself back at his old high school, the day after the vampire incident. Except, this time it was worse. He had been cornered in the hallway, kids surrounding him instead of blatantly ignoring him and throwing hurtful comments his way._

_‘Why did you do it? Huh?’ A female student asked. All Changbin did was start at her._

_‘You're no better than a piece of trash. Attacking a girl? At school? Really?’_

_‘What a sexist piece of-’_

_‘I hope you die alone-’_

_‘What that actual fuck-’_

_‘I thought he was gay?’_

_'Did you actually think-'_

_'Die, scum of the earth-’_

_Just as Changbin couldn't take it anymore, the scene morphed into his current high school, everyone in their respective spots, the teacher rambling about some important event that happened back in the 1930s. The teacher finished their lecture and walked out of the room. As soon as they were gone, everyone in the room turned to face Changbin._

_Now Changbin really wanted to disappear. This was supposed to be his new beginning, his clean slate, there was no way news could travel that-_

_Felix scoffed loudly. ‘I always knew you were bad, but now we all know. How you really are.’_

_‘Felix, what-’_

_‘Shut up! Murders shouldn't have a chance to speak!’ Some girl near the front of the class shouted._

_Murderer? He never killed anyone! He’s never done anything to anyone!_

_‘The one person who showed you any kindness, and you murder him. I can't-’ Hyunjin choked off, got up, and ran out of the classroom._

_‘What? I never-’_

_‘Changbin.’_

_Changbin’s blood ran cold. He turned to where Jisung sat in front of him and nearly passed out. Jisung was there, but he was transparent, just like all the ghosts he could see._

_‘Changbin, all I wanted was to be friends. But you had to go and ruin it. Now, you’ll forever be alone. Your mother probably killed herself because you were such a disappointment-’_

_‘No, Jisung, no! No, no! No no no, STOP!’_

_STOP!_

_Hands reached around his torso and pulled him back, back through the mirror, back to the blue._

_Jisung stared at the shorter male, his arms wrapped around his middle held him securely against the mousy haired male, and whispered in his ear, ‘Forget.’_

* * *

Changbin shot up, his heart still racing. With mild disgust, he realized he was soaked in sweat. He looked over at the clock and saw that despite it being six in the morning, he still had plenty of time until his shift at the convenience store. Stepping into a too-hot shower, he tried to relax. It had been a while since he had a dream of such calibre, and an even longer while since his mother had been mentioned by the unconscious insecurities in his brain.

After he finished his shower, washed his sweaty (ew) sheets, and drowned all signs of hunger in orange juice, he sat down to finish any schoolwork he had remaining. 

Oh, right. The purpose of yesterday was to get the group project they had been assigned out of the way. Hyunjin had mentioned something about splitting up the work soon-ish and working it out individually, before coming together and completing it.

Should he ask? Or would that be weird?

He pulled up the Line chat, seeing he had a few unread messages. 

**SUPER FUN PROJECT WE DON'T WANNA DO:**

**Han Jisung:** @Lee FElix @Hwang Hyunjin

Bitches

U be late

Get ur hose asses up here

Like

Yesterday

**Lee FElix:** yeah yeah we know well b there soon got hun g up with sc stuff

Hyunnojsn with em and i think his phone died

Well b there soon

Lieke

30 min?

**Han Jisung:** aite see you then

Cool. Nothing important. 

**SUPER FUN PROJECT WE DON'T WANNA DO:**

**Im Changbin:** did we ever work out splitting up work for the group project thing?

Nah, maybe it was better if he didn't say anything. He shut off his phone screen, leaving his message unsent.

* * *

Thankfully, it was a quiet, slow day at work that was, for the most part, uneventful and transparent-friend-free. There was one small incident where a kid that looked twelve tried to walk off with a soda he didn't pay for, but Changbin had mastered his _I’m disappointed in you, you put that back right now_ stare. Maybe his stupid anti-people curse helped in these types of scenarios too, because all it took was him glaring at the kid for a few seconds as he tried to leave before the kid broke down into snotty apologies and a returned soda. 

Changbin bought it for the boy anyway after he promised to never steal from anyone ever again. 

When Changbin was in the back counting inventory was when his peaceful evening decided to end. The door to the storage room was propped open by a heavy brick so it wouldn’t slam shut on anyone since it was one of those wonderful doors that automatically locked from both sides. Despite the store not wanting to spend the money to change the door, there was a key to the inside hung up right next to the door. 

It all happened so fast, Changbin still wasn’t quite sure what happened. The bean can ghost decided to visit again today, but this time, instead of knocking over towers of canned goods, he decided to knock over the closest storage shelf, which happened to be the one right in front of the door. On the shelf’s way down, it managed to knock the key to the door off the wall and shut the storage door.

Great. Just what he wanted. Not only did he still have school work to get done, but it was also a Sunday. He had school the next morning, and at the rate at which employees checked the back room, he was going to be here until tomorrow morning. 

Changbin looked up, and the bean can ghost was no longer there. Good. Neither could he do any more damage, nor annoy Changbin any further. 

He stood up and dusted himself off. What were his options? Calling his co-worker who should be at the front counter by now? No. Not only did the young lady absolutely despise Changbin, but she was usually late. Call his manager? Probably not the best idea, he was already on thin ice with the man. 

He sighed. If only Seonghwa was still working here. He’d probably let him out and actually ask if he was ok, instead of scolding him for making a mess. Speaking of Seonghwa, what if...

No. That was too out of his way, too inconvenient for him, too much to ask of someone who he had on just-

‘Changbin?’

Holy fuck, now he was hearing things.

‘Are you good? Changbin?’

‘Bro, I think he butt-dialled. I don't think the dude knows how to use Line.’

‘Hello?’ He asked into the void of the warehouse. Whatever prank bean can boy was pulling now wasn’t funny. ‘It’s not funny, Beans.’

‘Beans? Who’s Beans?’

‘Changbin? Hello? Can you hear me?’

‘Uh, yeah?’

‘Look at your phone dumbass.’ Phone? Ah, yes, his phone. The minicomputer was still in his back pocket, but it now had a nice crack across the screen from falling on it so hard. 

‘Uhhh... hi?’ He turned his phone screen around, and when it lit up it said he was in a Line call. Wait, calls could be made through Line?

‘Yes, calls can be made through Line. Duh.’ Oh, he said that out loud. Dang, Felix didn't have to be so rude.

‘Any reason you’re calling, Binnie?’ Jisung asked. ‘Or was this an accident?’

‘Uh, both?’ Changbin still wasn’t quite sure how things were working with this _Line call,_ but he didn't want to touch something and have it go away. ‘I’m, uh, kinda stuck.’

‘Stuck?’ Was that Hyunjin? Hyunjin was here too? 

‘Yeah, I’m- sorry, is anyone free right now?’

Everyone spoke at once, then ‘Uh, wow, look at the time. Gotta go, uh, leave. Bye.’ There was a beep, and for a moment Changbin worried that the call had been disconnected. 

‘What? Hello?’

Someone sighed. ‘Felix left the call. Don't worry, Bin, Hyunjin and I are still here. I’m free if it’s an emergency.’

‘Wait, Ji.’ Hyunjin spoke up. ‘Aren't you at the studio right now?’

‘Yeah, but Chan hyung’s out on a vape break. Who knows how long he's gonna be gone. Plus, I’m in a dry spell right now. I got time. What’s up?’

‘Well, I gotta go. Have fun getting yelled at by Chan hyung, Ji. Bye.’ There was another beep, probably Hyunjin leaving the call. 

‘Did I ever mention the convenience store I work at?’

* * *

Jisung balked. He was already surprised Changbin had somehow _butt-dialled_ them in a Line call, but needed help and actively asking. 

‘Like, as in which one? Don't think so. But you have mentioned that you do? Work.’ 

Changbin paused. ‘Yeah. I’m- I got locked in the backroom and I don't think my co-worker’s gonna be here anytime soon.’

‘Yikes. Want help?’

‘If you're able to. If it’s too far for you or anything, don't-’

Today was just full of surprises for Jisung. At some ungodly time in the morning (alright, it was nine-thirty am, but what kind of high schooler is awake that early during a weekend? Certainly not Jisung) Chan hyung had called him asking for help on the baseline of a song that just wouldn't stop bothering him. And, since Jisung was such great company and inspiration, he rushed over to Chan’s studio.

Then, when Chan was beyond fed up and frustrated with the project he was working on, he went for a vape break, a habit the blond man had sworn multiple times he’d quit and given up on. Jisung and Minho had tried to hide Chan’s pen, dump his juice, ruin his coils (Minho had deadass put motherfucking ketchup in one once, and Chan had been so pissed he had frozen the cat man’s feet to the floor and his tail to the wall) but Chan somehow always picked vaping back up. 

And now, Changbin had fucking somehow _butt-dialled_ a Line call, something that normally took multiple clicks and button presses to activate, and asked for help saying he was shut in the storage room at his work. The poor guy, trouble seemed to attach itself to Changbin. Another thing that surprised Jisung was how cold Hyunjin and Felix were to Bin over the call. After the incident yesterday, they both seemed ok with Changbin. But just a few minutes ago, it seemed like they either barely knew the short male, or wanted nothing to do with him. Which, what the fuck? Changbin was one of their classmates. What about Changbin rubbed some people the wrong way? Everyone seemed to want to fight the kid. Was it because of his height? Did he just give off a _Fight me_ vibe? Was it because of how damn cute-

‘Yo Sungie!’ Chan called as he was back from his break. 

‘Did you get the 808 fitting yet? It just doesn't groove right-’

‘Ah, hyung.’ Jisung cut Chan off. ‘Wanna help me out with something?’

Chan rolled his eyes and snorted. ‘As long as it’s not fucking 808 lines, I’m down.’

‘Great.’ He turned back to his phone on the desk. ‘Hey Bin, send me the address of the place you work at. I’ll be there soon.’

Jisung hung up abruptly. ‘Hyung, can you drive me somewhere? A friend of mine got stuck in the backroom of his work.’

‘Ya know what, I’m not even gonna ask.’ Chan started searching for his car keys. ‘Is this a friend I know, or-’

‘Nope, not yet. You’ll probably meet him when you help, right?’

‘Sure, sure. I don't care what my boss says about this stupid song anyway. Just send me the address, and we’ll go.’

* * *

After at least a full day (ok, it was really thirty-six minutes, but it felt like a goddamn _week_ ), Changbin heard voices and other signs of life coming from the other side of the back room door. One of the voices sounded like Jisung, and the other sounded a bit accented, but the accent was hard to place. 

‘Changbin? You in there?’ Jisung called through the door.

‘Yeah! I’m in- ow, shit!’

‘You good mate?’ The foreigner asked.

‘Yeah, tripped. A shelf fell over in front of the door, and it swings inwards. The key also got knocked off the wall, and, well, I’m not too sure what happened to the key. I think it’s either under the shelf or on the other side of the door.’

‘Alright, stand back. Just chill for a bit. We’ll figure something out.’ Jisung said. 

Changbin wasn’t reassured in the slightest. 

Stupid ghost.

* * *

Chan deadpanned to Jisung, who was trying not to feel guilty. ‘Ji,’ Chan whispered. ‘There’s no good way to get him out, _normally._ ’ 

‘And this is why I asked you to come with me.’

‘Ugh, alright. Give me a minute. There’s no one in the store, for now. Did you see how many cameras were in here when you came in?’

‘Uhh-’

‘Sung you need to be more observant. I think there’s one by the front door and one over the register.’

‘Yeah, I don't see anything back here.’

‘Right, I’m gonna freeze the bolt mechanism so it’s brittle, and you switch the way the door swings. After that, I’ll distract Changjin-’

‘Changbin.’

‘Whatever. I’ll distract him and you fix everything. Got it?’

‘Are you offering to carry my ass home? If it’s as big of a mess as I think it is, it’s gonna take more energy than I can comfortably expend.’

‘Yeah, sure, whatever, I’ll buy you dinner too. Just, do whatever so your human friend doesn't notice anything.’

Jisung smiled widely and saluted. ‘Yessir! Changbin! We found a crowbar, and we're gonna force the door open, stand back.’

All he got back was a noise of uncertainty and the sound of clanging. Jisung tried to keep his light down (out of all the ways his energy manifested, why did it have to be _light_? It was so tacky and flashy!). He changed the side of the door the hinges were on, and he heard the telltale crack of Chan’s ice. 

‘The lock’s toast. You good on the way it opens?’

Jisung just nodded and stepped back. Chan pulled the door open, arms bulging impressively. ‘Go get your friend.’ Chan said, brushing deadbolt dust off his shirt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the love you've given this story! I've really enjoyed writing this one, and I'm glad you guys are too ^.^


	4. Mr Lonely With Somebody For His Own

Changbin was starting to worry he would never get out of the storage room. Jisung and his friend had been whispering and mildly yelling at one another for a good thirty minutes about what they were gonna do.

And then the concerning noises started. First, there was the cracking, like the ceiling was about to cave in. Then there were the popping noises. They sounded less concerning, like cartoon bubbles popping, but bubbles didn't pop that loud. But the worse one was the loud _bang_ that rang through the building. The only good thing that came from it was the doop opening.

‘Eyyyy, Bin! We got the holy shit.’

‘That is a sentence I’d never thought I’d hear, and I don't think I want to ever hear it again.’

‘What happened in here?’ Jisung asked wide-eyed, standing on the other side of the fallen shelf.

Changbin couldn't think of anything clever to say, so he just plainly stated, ‘It fell.’

‘Thanks for the insight, brilliant. _How_ did it fall?’

Changbin shrugged. ‘Your guess is as good as mine.’

‘So how are you gonna get over the shelf? Over? Under?’

‘Neither of those sound safe.’

‘Uh, hmmm. What about-’ Jisung turned around. ‘Chan hyung, can you come help?’

Chan was, for lack of better words, very handsome. Blond curly hair, chiselled jawline, arms as big as Changbin’s legs. Chan looked like he could judo throw and choke slam Changbin at the same time. ‘Hi, I’m Chan.’ Hot damn this man was the foreigner. 

‘Uh, hi. Changbin. I’m! Changbin. Yeah.’ God, he just wanted to die on the spot.

‘Can you help with the shelf? Or get Bin over the shelf?’

‘Yeah.’ Chan started at the mess for a second, stepped in the middle of it, and held out a hand for Changbin. ‘Grab on.’ 

While Changbin would like to think he did most of the work getting over the fallen shelf, it was really Chan. All 100% Chan picking him up by his arm and basically deadlifting him over the entire bookshelf.

‘Let’s go talk outside, shall we?’ Chan pointed back to where the front of the convenience store was.

‘But, how will Jisung-’

Chan waved a hand. ‘Don't worry about him, he has his ways. Let's go.’ His tone didn't make relocating optional.

Just as Changbin predicted, his coworker still wasn't there, so he went back behind the counter. There was still no one in the store, thankfully; no angry customers waiting to check out and no twelve-year-olds trying to sneak soda. 

‘So, Chanbin-’ Chan hopped up on the counter. 

‘Changbin.’

‘Right. Tell me about yourself.’

 _Don't make a fool out of yourself don't be a fool don't be stupid_. ‘Jisung and I are in the same class. In school.’

‘Ah, so I’m older than you. Just call me hyung. How long have you worked at this store?’

‘Uh, a few years? I don't really count. I don't like being reminded of how boring and unpromising my life is.’

Chan snorted. ‘Oh common, there has to be something fun in your life. Hobbies? Fun past times? Stupid friends?’

‘I like music, I guess.’

‘You guess?’

‘I- yeah. I like it, but I don't think I would consider it a hobby.’

‘And why is that?’ There was a loud crash from the back room that almost sent Changbin running back there, but Chan blocked his way. ‘Don't mind Jisung. He told me he wanted to help you clean up.’

‘Why is Jisung cleaning? Have you seen that man’s walls? He can't organize anything to save his life! I bet you he can't even make it to the second level of Tetris!’ 

‘I can assure you, he’ll take care of the backroom just fine. Now, tell me more about music.’

‘Like, artists?’

‘Do you listen to it? Write it? Compose it? Remix it?’

‘Oh, uh, I tried composing once. It was, uhhhh- yeah. So then I moved to remixing and that was even worse than the few original pieces I made. So I just gave up.’

‘Really? Why just give it up if you enjoyed it?’

‘I grew too frustrated with myself to continue. I didn't have adequate equipment, nor did I have any way to get to any. I got pretty caught up with school, and I spent too much time comparing myself to others, even if they were beyond my years.’

Chan raised an eyebrow. ‘Well, if you ever get the urge to pick it back up, just let me know. I work as a secondary producer for a bunch of small companies, and sometimes write movie tracks when I’m feeling ambitious.’

Changbin nearly choked. ‘Wait, what the fuck?’

‘Did I ever fully introduce myself? Sorry, Bang Chan.’ The blond stuck his hand out. ‘But on paper, it’s CB97. Secondary producer and arranger of, well, a bunch of things.’

The shorter’s eyes widened. ‘No way, you’re one of the main people that write for Twice!’

Chan laughed. _God_ , this man was attractive. ‘I don't know about main, I’m usually not allowed to work on their title tracks. But I do a lot of work on their B-sides. Jisungie’s into music production too, the kid can sing pretty well. So he comes over and messes around in the studio from time to time. It’s what we were doing before we came over to evict you from your storage room.’

Out of the skills Jisung may or may not have possessed, impeccable timing was one of them because Changbin had absolutely no idea how to respond to the offer other than to mutely nod. But, deep down, he was proud of himself. This was the longest and most productive conversation he’s had with anyone that wasn't Jisung since a few years ago. ‘You’re storage room is now beautiful. No need to thank me! Actually, can I have a Snickers bar? And like, not pay for it?’

‘Sure.’

‘Sung! That’s stealing! Put that thing back or so help me- Changbin, don't enable him!’

‘Enable?’

‘Hyuuuuuuuuuuuuuung! This is a token of my hard work! It’s not like _you’ll_ buy me food.’

‘You eat all my food every other week! I can't keep my damn fridge stocked between you and Felix.’

‘Well, who’s fault is that? You let us.’

‘What the actual fuck kind of argument are you trying-’

‘Hey, Bin.’ Jisung cut Chan off, ignoring him. ‘We were gonna try to get together again next weekend, for the group project. If that works for you again-’

‘Yeah. Yeah, that works.’ Changbin shook himself out of his daze. 

‘Great! If you don't mind, I invited some other friends over, for like, after we work on the group project, for a board game and movie type of night. Would you wanna stay?’

‘Sure? If your friends don't mind.’

‘Nah, they won’t. You too will wanna strangle them by the end of the night.’ Chan smiled. 

Jisung opened his mouth to say something else but then swayed on his feet, eyes zoning out. ‘Woah, Jisung, you good?’ Changbin asked.

‘Ah-ha, I’m fantastic. Wonderful, magnificent. Never done before-’

‘He’s probably tired from cleaning up the back room. We’ll head out now.’ Chan started to half carry, half drag Jisung out the door with him, Jisung loudly protesting about his missed Snickers bar the whole way.

After five minutes of staring at the counter wondering what the fuck just happened, Changbin’s perpetually tardy, permanently grumpy coworker showed up. ‘The fuck are you still here for?’

_You waltz in a whole ass thirty minutes late have the fucking audacity-_

‘Holding down the floor. Busy day.’

‘Wow, I see. Well, no need. Skeet.’ She waved him off, taking place behind the register.

No _thank you_ , no _sorry for being late_ , no _I appreciate you covering my ass_ , just: skeet.

So he did. He skeeted to the backroom to see if Jisung had really cleaned up the backroom like he claimed he did and- holy shit. The back room was more organized and cleaner than Changbin had ever seen it, and he had been slowly cleaning it ever since he started working at the shitty corner store. The extra pallets of drinks were stacked and organized by colour, the boxes of different chip and snack bags were stacked by brand. The whole ass one-hundred pound shelf that had fallen over was back in its place with all it’s merchandise neatly stacked like books. The key was even back on its hook and the door looked just like it had before.

‘This is insane.’ The floor- Changbin could see the floor and it’s original brown concrete. It had been a while since he had ever seen a glimpse of the floor.

He should thank Jisung, right? Should he send him a text? Get him a thank you gift? Buy him lunch? Write him a letter? That was the polite thing to do. Would Jisung think less of him if he didn't do anything to thank him? Changbin tried to think back to when he had friends. Did- did they ever do things for him, like Jisung just had? Granted, no one had ever helped him with such a grand cleanup task. Should he offer Jisung to clean his apartment? Would that be insensitive?

When he got home and plugged his nearly dead phone in, he went straight to Naver: _how to show gratitude to someone_. The pages and pictures were filled with homemade craft ideas and expensive gifts. Changbin had neither money, nor the skill or patients to make something crafty. _Good ways to say thank._ Write them some love, give lots of hugs, tip well for service-

Yikes, no, nope nuh-uh. Jisung was a friend, not a sex worker. _Oh-_

Friend.

_How to thank a friend._

Changbin stared at the word **friend** in the search bar until his phone screen turned off, not even reading the results. He just considered Jisung a friend, something he hadn’t had in a good year. He felt- it felt good, having someone he could call a friend. The most exciting part was his brain did it subconsciously, he didn’t have to forcefully remind himself that Jisung was a good person who wouldn’t immediately hate his guts for existing, like Seonghwa. While his old co-worker was always nice to him, he constantly had to remind himself of the fact.

Speaking of Seonghwa...

Changbin -> Convenience store Seonghwa

Changbin: Hey hyung

Cna i ask for that favour now?

Changbin didn't expect a reply for a good few days, which was why he startled when a reply came almost immediately. Dang, the default text tone was annoying. He remembered thinking the same thing to himself a few months ago, when he got his last text message, but couldn’t be bothered to actually put effort into changing it because no one ever messaged him.

Changbin -> Convenience store Seonghwa

Convenience store Seonghwa: Changbin!  
Of course  
Need me to bury anyone?  
Break into something?  
Frame anyone?

Changbin: yeesh i didn't joint the mafia or anything this almost makes my favour look sad

Convenience store Seonghwa: ?

Changbin: a friend helped me clean out the backroom

Convenience store Seonghwa: !!!  
Changbin has friends!

Changbin: shut u p

Convenience store Seonghwa: and hot damn he actually helped you clean out that black hole?  
Keep them forever and marry them

Changbin: hyung!

Convenience store Seonghwa: aite fine ill stop  
So your favour?

Changbin: i wanna thank them for helping  
But i'm not sure how

Convenience store Seonghwa: thats it?

Changbin: what do you mean thats it?  
I'm having a crisis!

Convenience store Seonghwa: give me a s e c  
I'm amking fun of you

Changbin: I suddenly don't want anything from you goodby

Convenience store Seonghwa: sorry sorry  
Did you tell him thanks?  
Or like text him?  
And maybe offer to help him clean something  
Or just  
Say youd be willing to he,p him if he ever needs something

Changbin: thats it?

Convenience store Seonghwa: yeah  
All they need is to know that you appreciated what you did  
Wait  
They  
All they need is to know that you appreciated what they did  
Ha now it makes sense  
If they helped you in the frst place and expected something from you  
Thats not a true friend  
A true friend will just do things bc they wanna help out  
So text them rn  
Coward

Changbin: ok ok ok  
I get it  
Ill send him a note  
Thanks hyung

Convenience store Seonghwa: anytime  
And Changbin?  
The same goes for you  
If you ever need help with anything  
Feel more than free to ask me  
I’ll attempt to do what I can

Changbin: Thanks mum  
But i can guarantee you i’m not gonna rob any banks anytime soon

Convenience store Seonghwa: 👀

Better to do it now before he lost his never, and before he saw Jisung again in person. By that point, things would just be awkward.

Changbean -> Jiji

Changbean: Hey Jisung, thank you for cleaning out the backroom

Changbin shook his head and backspaced the whole thing. All the confidence he had when asking Seonghwa hyung for advice had vanished in the uncertainty of how to start a thank you message. 

Changbean -> Jiji

Changbean: Hi Jisung

Nope. 

Changbean -> Jiji

Changbean: I wanted to formally express my gratitude for

Ugh, what was he, forty?

Changbean -> Jiji

Changbean: Thanks for helping me out today. Chan hyung too. I have no idea what you did back there, but I don tthink I;ve ever seen the floor of that damn room, so thanks

Now he sounds like a child. But instead of backspacing like he wanted to, his dumbass hit send.

‘Oh no, oh god, why.’ Like what all people do when they panic, Changbin threw his phone away from him but forgot it was plugged into his short charging cord. In short, his phone came back and smacked him in the arm. But what made everything worse was that Jisung had responded within the span of ten seconds. 

Changbean -> Jiji

Jiji: Yee yee no prob  
I have mastered the art of cleaning  
Except in my own apartment  
But we don't talk about that  
  


Ugh, now he had to _respond._ Why was having a friend so stressful?

Changbean -> Jiji

Changbean: lol

_WHAT ELSE WAS THERE TO SAY?_

Changbean -> Jiji

Changbean: if you ever want help cleaning out your own place, i'll be glad to help  
(●'◡'●)  
  


Jiji: ╰(*°▽°*)╯(￣y▽,￣)╭  
Thanks bin!

  
  


Would it be ok to leave that message on read and just not respond because he had nothing more to say?

Changbean -> Jiji

Changbean: Great, see you tomorrow

Now he could rest peacefully. By peacefully, Changbin turned off his phone as fast as he could so he wouldn't see any more messages from Jisung.

* * *

Changbin had never been so disrespected. The audacity of the fuckers, who were younger than his old ass, how _dare they-_

‘Uno.’

‘Hyunjin, there is no way you are that good at this game.’

Felix snorted. ‘Listen I gave up two rounds ago. I’m convinced the Uno gods have cursed me.’

‘Bitch you have seven cards!’ Jisung bit out, no malice in his tone.

‘And you have nine!’

‘Excuse you, ten.’

‘Both of you shut up. I’m the one with the deck.’ Changbin's hands were starting to get sore from holding so many cards for so long.

Monday and the rest of the week had come and gone pretty quickly. On Monday, Jisung sat at the desk next to him in the back of the class, and Changbin gave him a Snickers bar because he never got to grab a free one when Chan hauled him out of the store. Saturday rolled around, and Changbin found himself back in Jisung’s living room with Felix and Hyunjin working on their stupid group project.

‘I think we're done with this.’ Hyunjin proudly announced. 

‘Think we’ll have to present it?’ Felix asked.

Jisung shuttered. ‘God I hope not. I hate standing up in front of people and talking.’ 

‘If we’re done, I’m inviting Minnie over.’ 

‘Just tell everyone to come over. We finished early. You still wanna stay, Bin?’

‘Uh, sure.’

Which put them where they were now, suffering from many rounds of Uno that only Hyunjin seemed to be winning, while they waited for the others to show up.

Speaking of the others, a ‘Howdy, bitches.’ was heard from Jisung’s doorway, and Jisung dropped all ten of his Uno cards face up to go greet the person that had just walked in. 

While Felix and Hyunjin thoroughly observed and traded out Jisung’s Uno cards, a thought occurred to Changbin. Jisung never locked his door. Or, he had never seen Jisung lock his door. The first he came over, Jisung told him to walk straight in. It was unlocked then, and just Jisung was home. Even today, he was able to waltz right into the chaotic apartment without any hassle. Granted, Hyunjin and Felix were already over. Did Jisung unlock it when anticipating company? But he never seemed to lock it after Changbin whenever he left, either. So why-

‘Binnie! This is Minho hyung, and you already know Chan hyung.’

‘Oh?’ Minho raised an eyebrow at Chan. Chan smacked Minho and told him to not be weird. ‘Sorry, sorry. I’m Minho. Nice to meet you.’ He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.

‘Hi, I’m Changbin.’ 

Chan smiled in his direction. ‘Nice to see you again.’

Minho gave him a weird vibe, but it wasn't a bad kind of weird, not the I'm-cursed-weird Minho was probably getting from him. It was almost a haughty kind of weird, an I-am-above-you-in-all-means-even-physical vibe. 

‘Don't mind Minho hyung.’ Jisung whispered next to him. ‘He’s a little cold around new people, but he’ll warm up to you eventually. And he may seem mean, but he’s harmless.’

Changbin looked over to where Minho was hanging off Chan’s arm as they joked with Felix and Hyunjin. ‘Is Minho the pimp, or is Chan?’

‘Binnie!’ Jisung smacked his arm but looked like he was trying hard not to laugh. Minho shot him a death glare: oops, he probably heard his question. _Great first impression, Changbin._

More people walked through Jisung’s front door, loudly announcing their presents. While Changbin wasn’t thrilled at the immediate prospect of more people, it did take Minho’s attention off him. 

‘The taller one is Seungmin.’ Jisung pointed to the new people who had just walked through the door. ‘He’s in the same grade as us, but a different class. The cute one is Jeongin. He’s a year below up, but just as much of a brat as Seungmin.’

‘Ah, is Seungmin the friend you're always talking about?’

‘Yeah. He’s the one who painted the other half of my cards and likes to mother me.’

‘Got it.’

Greetings seemed to go fairly well. He was better received from the other two than he was from Minho, but no one was quite as friendly with him as Jisung was. Once the other two had gotten settled in, Jisung told him that no one else was coming, which was why the snack cabinet was being raided and the living room was being rearranged to seat more people.

‘We normally just play games, eat too much, and watch movies. If you get uncomfortable or don't wanna stay anymore, just let me know and I’ll walk you home.’

‘I don't live that far from here, I can walk home alone.’

‘I’m not offering for you.’ Jisung smiled. ‘I’m offering so I can get away.’

First came the fight over what board game was to be played. There was a whole closet dedicated to boardgames that belonged to everyone, but since the gatherings were always at Jisung’s apartment, they had come to store all their board games at his place. 

Then was the argument on _how_ to pick a board game.

‘Hyunjin chose last time, so now it's my turn!’

‘Let's just do a randomizer.’

‘Chan hyung, we did that last week.’

‘What if we had Changbin choose?’

The _no_ Chan got was the most vehement answer he’d ever heard.

After a lifetime, the seven boys had finally decided on Monopoly. But then came the disagreement on which set of rules to use.

‘Let’s just go by the rules in the book, Changbin doesn't know how we play.’

‘What’s wrong with teaching him the house rules?’

‘Those are complicated, let’s just play the speedy version.’

‘What the fuck? There’s a speedy version of monopoly? Does it shorten the game from six hours to three?’

‘You do different things with the properties.’

‘Let’s vote. Who wants what?’

‘I wanna leave.’ Jisung said. ‘And I want clean couches.’

‘And I want new friends.’ Minho bit back, but with no malice. ‘We all can't get what we want.’

In the end, house rules won out, which meant the game went on longer, and shots could substitute having to pay rent on certain spaces. There was even a new stack of cards that read _get out of jail_ , courtesy of Jisung and Seungmin, which a player had to draw in order to get out of jail.

‘It’s like if truth or dare was a deck of cards.’ Jisung explained. ‘That’s the get out of jail cards.’

Monopoly started off normally until Jeongin and Chan decided to form an alliance or a conglomerate as they called it, and pooled their money and assets together and slowly started bankrupting everyone else. Hyunjin tried to convince others to team up with him, but when they refused, he resorted to stealing monopoly money and even deeds from them when they weren't looking. By this point, Minho and Jisung had already gone bankrupt and had started an intense game of checkers off to the side. When Hyunjin tried to steal Changbin’s only lucrative property, Pennsylvania Avenue, he threw a fit.

‘Stop it! I will bite your hand.’

‘What are you gonna do if I take it, huh? Kick me? Can you even reach?’

‘Ya! Speak respectfully, you brat. I’m your elder!’ 

‘Oh? And when were you born?’

‘August.’

Hyunjin rolled his eyes. ‘By five months? I’m in March, I’m still older.’

‘Seven.’

‘What the fuck? March and August are five months apart.’

‘August and March are seven months apart. I’m a year older than you think I am. I was born in 1999, loser.’

‘Boomer.’

‘Brat.’

‘Did you get held back or just start late?’ Seungmin asked, genuine curiosity filling his tone. 

‘It’s a long story, but basically, I got kicked out of my old school because of a misunderstanding and cursed to never have any friends.’ 

Hyunjin shot him a weird look. ‘Whatever you say, funny man.’

‘I refuse to call you hyung!’ Felix declared, clearly no longer sober.

‘Sure, whatever.’ Changbin rolled his eyes. He turned to Jisung, who had crawled back to his side after losing at checkers. ‘Hey, quick question. Are Minho and Chan hyung...uh...?’ He threw a glance at the pair. Minho had his head on Chan's shoulder where he was loudly whispering strats on how to cheat at monopoly to the blond.

‘Chan hyung and Minho hyung, they’re a thing, but like, an on and off thing.’ Jisung provided. ‘The simple answer is there’s something there, but that’s about all they let on. They used to fight a lot, but when they saw how it affected the rest of us, they stopped.’

‘We think Chan hyung was just being considerate.’ Hyunjin snorted.

‘Just like someone else should be. Chan and Minho are almost as bad as Hyunjin and-’

‘ _Don’t_ finish that sentence.’ Seungmin snarled at Jisung.

Felix threw his empty can at Jisung. ‘Hey!’

‘Now, now. Were all friends here, right?’ Hyunjin asked, throwing his arms over Seungmin and Felix. There was clearly something going on there, but Changbin had absolutely no desire to get anywhere near it. He failed to suppress a shiver. 

After another group round of monopoly, but with more shots, most of the group was pretty wasted, so Chan put on a movie for everyone to pretend to watch. Chan and Minho had succumbed to making out in a corner, and Seungmin dragged Jisung into one of his rooms, Hyunjin following shortly. Jeongin was intently focused on the movie playing. (Granted, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a classic)

Changbin found himself glomped by a drunk Felix. The freckled kid was always affectionate with Jisung and Hyunjin, but Changbin expected him to be the last person he would cling to. ‘Felix? You ok buddy?’

Felix sniffled. ‘Jinnie doesn't like me anymore!’

Oh boy, he was one of _those_ drunks. 

‘I’m sure he likes you, Felix. It’s just-’

‘Noooooooooo, he hates meeeeeeeeee.’

‘Hey, hey. It’s alright, no one could hate you, Felix.’

‘You hate me.’ he muttered into Changbin’s shoulder. 

_I really don't want to do this now._

‘I don't hate you.’

He picked his head up from where it was buried in Changbin’s shoulder. ‘Really?’ Yikes, were the actual tears in this kid's eyes? And...glowing freckles? ‘Truly?’

‘Really, truly. Are your freckles glowing?’

‘Of course, they are! Imma star! Thank you Binnieeeeeeee.’ Felix giggled.

‘You what?’

But Felix was already gone, screeching out lines from Guanlin and Wooseok’s _I'm a star_. Changbin tried his best to keep Felix from falling off the couch, he really did. But the swaying teen ended up pulling both of them onto the floor, all while trying his best to keep singing. Jisung walked into the living room a few minutes later, after Changbin was certain he had gone deaf.

‘Sungie. Sungie, be a pal and help.’

Jisung just stared at the two of them, pulled out his phone, and started taking pictures. ‘Sure, but after I get good blackmail on Lix.’

‘Jiiiiiisungieee.’

‘Fine, fine. Let's go.’ Jisung grabbed Changbin by the arm and tried to pull him up, but Felix latched on to his legs, whining about how he didn't want his new best friend to leave him. ‘Minnie stole Jinnie and now you can't steal Binnie!’

‘Felix, please. My legs are gonna fall off.’ _And my pants._

‘NoOoooOOOoo, Binnie likes me now! And you already like him, so I get to keep him.’

Changbin made a note in the back of his mind to never let Felix drink ever again.

Jisung managed to manhandle Felix back onto the couch and made him constrict a blanket instead of Changbin's legs. 'Follow me.' He said.

He followed the other to the hallway that broke off into rooms. Jisung disappeared into the room that had the mirror and emerged a few seconds later with a backpack. ‘Ok, I’m ready. Let’s go.’

‘Go where?’

‘Your place, duh. Seungmin and Hyunjin are defiling my bed, I really don't want to think about Chan hyung and Minho hyung in the corner, and Jeongin can deal with Felix.’

Once they were outside of the building, Changbin asked, ‘So is this a normal occurrence, running away from your own apartment?’

Jisung laughed, ‘Somewhat. I have accepted that my trash friends will completely destroy my apartment and I will never get my security deposit back. So when we would have these kinds of game nights, I would usually just go to Chan hyung’s studio and spend the night.’

‘And you just assumed I’d let you stay over at my place?’ He raised an eyebrow at the taller male.

‘Please?’

Chanhbin tried to stare Jisung down, but it was just so hard. He was too wholesome and cute looking at that moment, how could he possibly say no?

‘Ugh, fine! But don't complain if I make you sleep in the bathtub.’

Jisung’s whole face lit up. ‘Yessir!’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to attempt to update somewhat weekly  
> but now that I've said that, it's never gonna happen lol
> 
> everyone T.T is so nice, and sweet. I appreciate you guys!
> 
> and I know I joke about beans being painful, but someone deadass filled a sock with dry beans and hit me with it the other day ;;  
> beware the beans, kids


	5. In which Felix Sucks at Go Fish

‘Why the fuck did you invite a human here?’ Were Seungmin’s first words to Jisung after he dragged him into his own bedroom and shut the door.

‘Well, hello to you too.’

‘I’m serious Jisung. He’s a human. You can be friends with them in your free time, but don’t bring him to a board game night and expect him to be welcomed.’

‘He’s a sad pitiful human who has no friends.’

‘I’m sure he doesn't want your righteous pity-’

‘It’s not pity! He’s sad and has no friends, and I wanna be his friend.’

‘Fine, be his friend. But don’t bring someone here who could be a possible danger to the rest of us.’

‘Bin isn’t going to be a danger to us! Even if he figures anything out, I can just wipe his memory again-’

‘Again? As in it’s already happened? Sung-’

‘I know I know! But it’s fine, it’s not like he remembers anything.’

‘I can’t-’ Seungmin cut off when Hyunjin poked his head into the room.

‘Hey, Min. Sungie do you mind if I borrow your room to...?’

‘Ugh fine, but make sure you change my sheets out after. In fact, do the rest of my laundry while you're at it.’ He moved to his closet and started stuffing clothes in a bag.

‘Wait, where are- where are you going to stay?’

‘I’ll stay with _the human._ Have fun, don’t break anything.’

Jisung knew he was being a bit unreasonable and a bit harsh, but so was Seungmin. Just because Changbin was a human didn’t mean he would rat them out. Changbin probably wouldn’t even know who to report them to to get them caught.

After dropping his backpack off in the hallway, he visited the living room to witness Changbin trapped by a cuddly Felix. The sight was surprisingly domestic, aside from the fact that Felix was trying to smother the shorter with his clearly unwanted affection. 

‘Sungie.’ Changbin flailed when he spotted him. ‘Sungie, be a pal and help.’ 

Jisung pulled out his phone. He was not going to let this opportunity to rub this in Felix’s face pass up. ‘Sure, but after I get good blackmail on Lix.’

‘Jiiiiiisungieee.’

‘Fine, fine. Let's go.’ Jisung grabbed Changbin by the arm and tried to pull him up, but Felix latched on to Changbin’s legs, whining about how he didn't want his new best friend to leave him. ‘Minnie stole Jinnie and now you can't steal Binnie!’

‘Felix, please. My legs are gonna fall off.’ Changbin whined. Jisung did his best to suppress a laugh, that’d be entertaining, as awful as it would be for Bin at the moment. It may be abusing his powers a bit, and the trust in his friends, but he _could_ make them all forget about such an incident if it happened. 

‘NoOoooOOOoo, Binnie likes me now! And you already like him, so I get to keep him.’ Now Jisung just wanted to kick Felix. When he wanted the two to get along, the freckled boy was as belligerent as ever to not accept the shorter. But now, now he wouldn't let go of him. Jisung got so fed up inside his inner thoughts, he ended up half putting, half throwing Felix onto the couch and replacing Changbin with a blanket.

‘Follow me.’ Jisung said, heading towards the bag he packed. ‘Ok, I’m ready. Let’s go.’

Changbin gave him a weird look. ‘Go where?’

‘Your place, duh. Seungmin and Hyunjin are defiling my bed, I really don't want to think about Chan hyung and Minho hyung in the corner, and Jeongin can deal with Felix.’ Maybe he should have asked first, oops. Easier to ask forgiveness than permission?

* * *

‘So what's the full story?’ Jisung spoke up after a minute of walking silence.

‘For what?’ Changbin scrunched his nose at Jisung.

‘Your whole high school career.’ Jisung said snidely, but then his voice took on a more serious tone. ‘The whole cursed to not have any friends. Something tells me there's more you're not saying.’

‘Yeah. Yeah, there is. But I actually like you, and I don’t wanna weird you out too much.’

‘Oh, ho! Now I’m only more interested.’

‘Uh, huh.’

‘Really. Truly. Honestly.’ Jisung held his hand up in a scouts honour sign, then made a face at it. ‘Was it supposed to be two or three fingers? I forgot.’

Changbin stopped walking and turned to stare at Jisung. Maybe being blatant would make him able to play it off if it went down poorly. ‘I was cursed by a vampire at my old school which led to me getting kicked out because everyone thought I harassed the girl I saved.’ 

Jisung just stood there as Changbin started walking off again. _Great job, Changbin. You told the one person who was warming up to you, and now he thinks you're-_

‘Everything makes so much sense now!’ Jisung commandeered the bike Changbin had been walking back and swung a leg over it. ‘Hop-on, and tell me how to get to your place.’

‘Hey! That’s my- Woah, Sung, wait! My legs are shorter than yours! Slow down so I can get on!’

Jisung slowed down only a little bit. ‘I never thought I’d hear the day you confess that.’

Changbin was winded by the time they reached the front of his apartment building, having run the majority of the way, and he groaned mentally when he remembered that he had to climb four flights of stairs. ‘Give- give me a moment. I’m not used to moving this fast.’

‘Aw, common! It’s only a few stairs. Race you there?’

‘No. I’m conceding defeat now.’

Jisung poked his cheek in. ‘Aww, you're no fun.’

Jisung raced up the stairs anyway (with his bike no less), leaving Changbin to slowly follow, trudging up each stair, legs protesting with each flight. When he reached his front door, he pushed it open and flopped straight on his couch, not even noticing that Jisung had somehow unlocked it without the key. ‘What was so important you had to literally drag me all the way here?’

‘You're not a regular human, are you?’ Jisung asked as he held out a cup of tea to Changbin.

As much as Changbin wanted to refute the claim, to deny and push back the accusation, something nagged at the back of his head, to be honest. So, like the intelligent person he was, he deactivated his mouth to brain filter.

‘It’s not like you're normal either. How the fuck did you know which apartment was mine? Or how to get in. Or where to find- I don't even own tea!’ _Great going Bin._

Jisung just laughed. ‘You're right. I’m a witch. See?’ He held out his other hand and blue light encased it, sparking off in random directions.

Changbin sat up slowly, ‘But I thought witches were old hags that secluded themselves in swamps.’

Jisung set Changbin’s tea down on the coffee table that was actually a repurposed ironing board and shot Changbin a weird look. ‘What kind of messed up, acid-trip, children's book are you reading? If an assistant principal can be a vampire, why can’t a high schooler be a witch?’

‘You make a fair point.’ Changbin shrugged. ‘I just- after the vampire incident, I tried looking into the- the other world as much as I could. Sorry, I’m not quite sure what to call it. Calling it _the magic world_ or _the other world_ seems kind of subjective, but I never really had anyone to talk to. About anything, really. All my old friends back at my old school just- just wanted nothing to do with me the next day. They were the ones who ridiculed me the most.’

Jisung nodded, understanding. ‘That really sucks, and I’ll help you so you never have to go through something like that again. But it does explain a few things.’

‘Like what?’

‘Well, first off, why everyone was stand-offish when they first met you.’

‘But you-’

‘Witches are unaffected by vampire curses. There’s a whole science behind the energy of vampires and witches, and vampire curses and witch charms basically use the same frequency. Sorry, I’ll spare you. It’s kinda boring. But, it explains why I could never find a problem with you.’

Changbin snorted. ‘Gee, thanks. So with everyone I came into contact with that was nice to me, were they witches too?’ _Like Seonghwa hyung, and maybe Chan?_

‘I’d have to meet them to be able to tell. People from, well _my_ world- you know what, I see what you mean. But anyone from the Otherworld can normally tell if someone else is human or not on sight. Other witches can immediately recognize each other because of the energy we give off.’

‘Is Chan hyung a witch too?’

‘Not...exactly. I’ll let him explain it to you. But the whole friend group you just met- none of us are humans.’

‘Are you just gonna leave me with that ambiguous statement while I die of curiosity or are you gonna explain?’

‘I’ll let the others explain about themselves. But they don’t know that, uh, you know, you know?’

‘They don’t know I’m aware of their world, know you’re a witch that can bend pretty blue lights-‘

‘-energy-‘

‘And see ghosts?’

‘Wait, you what now?’

Changbin let out a breath. _He won’t think I’m crazy. He can’t think I’m crazy. He’s literally a magical witch who can make things float, break into people’s houses, and conjure tea. Jisung won't hate you..._ ‘I can see ghosts. It’s super inconvenient, and it’s how I got stuck in the backroom of my workplace. Some childish ghost I nicknamed Beans appeared, told me to stick around, got mad when I didn't want to and knocked the shelf over.’

‘Have you always been able to see ghosts?’

 _Thank god, he doesn't think I'm insane._ All the built-up tension eased its way out of his shoulders and neck. Changbin thought for a moment, before saying, ‘I think so. I don't really have any memories before I was, like, six. But ever since then, yeah. Do ghosts not like witches? Because I never run into any when I’m around you.’

‘Ghosts are a bit of an enigma. They can show themselves when they want to, and they can cause a bunch of trouble. That’s why exorcists are so rare, not many people can see all degrees of ghosts. And out of the small population that can see them, not many want to take the job. I think ghosts avoid anyone supernatural, or from the Otherworld as you put it. But I don’t have a good way to tell.’

‘How convenient.’ Changbin grumbled. Of course, _he_ was the special one who couldn’t turn off his ghostly radar senses. If anything, the ghosts he could see were super-inconvenient, always causing trouble for him. Maybe he was just super unlucky and always attracted the mischievous trouble makers instead of the ones who had aspirations to be dementors or get vengeance for the deeds some other heinous creature had committed on their behalf.

‘So where am I sleeping tonight?’ Jisung asked, trying to pull a cute face.

‘The laundry room, if you keep that up.’

‘But Binnieeee. Why don’t you love meeeee.’

‘I will lock you out on the balcony.’

‘You forget I’m the one with magic here.’

‘And you forget I won’t hesitate to throw you off the balcony.’

‘Fine.’ Jisung huffed, not pleased with his resilience. ‘The couch is it.’

‘I’ll find you a few blankets. It gets pretty cold out in the living room, but it’s warmer than the balcony!’

* * *

Jisung felt like he had just fallen asleep, but when he checked his phone, it showed he had been asleep for a good few hours. Why had he woken up? Was it the whole while sleeping in an unfamiliar place? Jisung shivered. Changbin did mention it got cold out in the living room, but this was a different kind of cold. This was a sinister type of cold that never followed anything good. 

There was a noise from outside. Normally, Jisung would have written it off as a cat, but the moving shadows that followed proved otherwise. Then some sounds sounded like footsteps, and they stopped right outside Changbin’s front door. Whispering? Whatever language it was happening in, it wasn’t Korean. Were they trying to open the door? The whisperings, they were growing louder. There were more noises from the front of the apartment- oh, shit, did they break into the apartment?

The shadows were not helping with Jisung’s anxiety. A humanoid shape passed by the light cast from the window. Now Jisung was on high alert. He should...he should-

What he should have done, was think rationally, slow down, calm down, realize that the across the hall neighbours were just getting back. What he _did-_

And that was how Changbin found him. He did have to admit, it was a bit embarrassing to be caught rifling through someone's kitchen with knives and heavy pans floating around him while on high alert in the middle of the night. 

‘Jisung, what the actual _fuck_ are you doing to my kitchen at-’ Changbin squinted at the oven clock, ‘...four twenty-six in the morning?’

‘Bro, dude....dudebro. There were these people- the noises from the front door. Someone- some broke in, the shadows were moving, and like...I got scared man. I don't wanna get stabbed in my friend's living room. I swear your apartment is either haunted or a hot spot for demonic activity.’

Changbin squinted at Jisung, but then said, ‘I guess it is,’ after a moment.

‘Wha- but- the shadows-’

‘I get visited by friendly phantoms nearly daily. But I always thought it was more me, not the apartments. Explains why they're so cheap; that and the wifi sucks here.’

‘You are the only person who would be this chill with a haunted apartment.’

‘I dunno, I could see Felix finding it enjoyable.’

‘Felix is a huge pussy and screams if you open the fridge too fast. He wouldn’t last a few minutes.’

Changbin cracked a smile. ‘Alright then. You better put everything back where you found it.’

Jisung made all the knives and forks he had floating around him turn towards Changbin. ‘Are you sure you're in a position to order me around?’

‘Han Jisung.’ A spike of cold ran down his spine. Jisung had never realized how scary Changbin could be. Sure, he _looked_ scary upon the first impression, but ever since he had gotten to know the short male, he had been great. Funny. Squishy. Extremely cute, especially with the bed head he was currently sporting. But scary? Terrifying? Those adjectives never came to the forefront of Jisung’s mind when he thought of his newfound friend. 

Until now.

Sure, it was four am. Sure, it was dark. But the windows had lights from other buildings filtering into the room, the apartment wasn't pitch black. 

Changbin had a shadow behind him, despite being in front of the window. The shadow behind him only grew, blocking out the light from the window. His eyes glowed with an orange tint in the new darkness. The sinister cold that had woken Jisung up in the first place was back, and it gripped him from all sides, not letting go. The feeling of being watched by another pair of eyes wouldn't go away, and the noises-

‘Just go back to bed, man. I can give you another blanket if you're still cold.’

Jisung blinked and it was all gone. The shadow, the phantom cold, the menacing aura that he was sure was about to strike him down- gone. Like it was never there in the first place.

‘Can I sleep with you?’ Ah yes, way to go Jisung. Subtle is your middle name, Han Subtle Jisung. ‘Wait, shit, not like that. I mean, your couch is great and all, but-’

‘Sure, fine. Let's go.’ 

Oh shit, did he piss Bin off? It was so hard to get a read off the other, especially because he was half asleep and so different from how he normally was. Grabbing the blanket and pillow he had been using off the couch, Jisung hurried to follow Changbin into his room.

‘I would apologize for the mess,’ Changbin started, kicking clothes and books aside to form a path from his bed to his door, ‘But my mother told me it was rude to lie.’

‘Sorry I woke you up, Bin. I thought I heard something and panicked and-’

‘Mmm, it’s fine. Sorry for being a dick. Now go to bed.’ Jisung looked at Changbin’s twin bed with the other already buried in his bedspread. Should he offer to sleep on the floor? There was no way he was going back on the couch. Maybe the balcony was still an open offer?

Changbin let out a groan. ‘Get in. I promise I won't kick you. As long as you don't snore. If you're a sleeping lawnmower, then all promises are invalid.’ Jisung added his borrowed pillow next to Changbin’s and added the blanket on top and crawled in the small but warm space. ‘You’re literally a walking space heater.’ Changbin muttered more into his pillow than at Jisung. 

‘And you're a motherfucking glacier. Are you feeling ok? I don't think it’s normal to be this cold.’

‘M fine. G'night.’

Jisung had one of the strangest dreams he’s ever had that night. But all he remembered from it was that it was strange. For Jisung, dreams were never just dreams. They were filled with signs, warnings, predictions, and foreshadowing, so for him not to remember it at all, was strange and disconcerting.

He laid in bed, wondering if he should try to fall asleep again. It was borderline unbearably warm, and the blankets were really heavy, and the ceiling was missing the many cheap plastic glow stars he and Felix had put up-

This wasn’t his ceiling. This wasn’t his room, and the heavy heat source basically on top of him was Im Changbin, the adorable, short, terrifying human Jisung had crossed paths with all those months ago (ok, it had been like, two. But it seemed like forever ago). 

Jisung was experienced with getting out of tricky morning situations. Both Hyunjin and Felix liked to latch on suffocatingly tight whenever they fell asleep within the same proximity. Jisung liked to think of himself as a ninja for being able to escape the actual leeches that were his friends. But this? This was different on too many levels for him to be able to move. He knew Hyunjin and Felix’s movement tolerance (Hyunjin's was extremely high, that man could sleep through an earthquake, Felix, less so). Would Changbin wake up if Jisung moved? How much could he move before he woke up? There was nothing to replace himself with because the other was just on top of his as opposed to squeezing the life out of him. What if he tried to slowly slide out of the bed? Or would just throwing Bin off of him work better? What if he-

There was a knock at the front door. Great, now he _had_ to get up. It was probably one of the neighbours complaining about the noise Jisung generated last night while rifling through the kitchen. Something he needed to clean up, by the way. He did not want to see Changbin’s orange-eyed alter ego anytime soon. 

The person at the front door knocked louder, more impatient this time, and Jisung resorted to jerking up, having Changbin roll off him. The other muttered something, shifted to his other shoulder, and went back to dreamland. Thank fuck. Jisung considered putting on pants before opening the door, but whoever was knocking on the door at...eleven in the morning could deal. 

At the door was a high school girl and an older looking guy, probably in his late twenties or early thirties. The guy looked fairly normal dressed in all black, but he was very stoic. The high schooler looked...strange. She was pretty, but in an eerie way, almost too pretty to be real, like a doll. Her hair was frizzy and pulled into pigtails with a bunch of brightly coloured strands in it, and it matched the painfully bright frilly dress she was wearing. Her expression even matched her outfit, teetering excitement, eyes burning with something hopeful. Her eyes...

If Jisung would have seen the duo out in public with a group of friends, he might have just ignored them, maybe done a double-take at the girl’s dress just out of pure curiosity from the sheer loudness of the colours, but he would have passed them by without a second thought. Now, that he was looking into the younger girl's eyes, something put him off, and it bothered him even more because he couldn't place the feeling. Normally his witchy side would act up if someone was teeming with malicious intent, but it stayed quiet. Either Dollface here was high on crack, or there was something genuinely wrong with her.

‘Hi! I’m Yunkyung! You’re Changbin oppa, right?’

Now Jisung was freaked out. They knew who Changbin was, they knew where he _lived_ , and they had actively sought him out. Thank god Jisung had answered the door instead of Bin. The dumbass probably would have said yes and let the two strangers inside his house for tea, sorry, boiled water (who the fuck doesn't own tea?!) and saltines.

‘I’m sorry, you must have the wrong place. I don't know anyone named Changbin.’ 

‘You're not-’ Her smile slowly fell, ‘You're not cousin Changbin oppa?’

 _Cousin?_ Jisung shook his head. Should he offer his name? A name? Giving them his actual name might be a bid idea, what was a good fake name? Minhyuk? Bingo? What about Sanchan?

The high schooler, Yunkyung, didn't like that. She frowned, eyes going from ecstatically hopeful to mad. Like it was _his_ fault she chose the wrong apartment. ‘No, no! This has to be the right apartment! Are you _sure you're_ not Changbin oppa? You have to be!’ She stomped her foot. Was this kid a high schooler, or a tall middle schooler?

The older guy said something to the girl that Jisung didn't quite catch, and she only seemed to become more irritated. ‘He’s _here_.’ She insisted. She turned back to Jisung, eyes burning. ‘You’re hiding him! Where is he?’ She tried to push her way into the apartment and was freakishly strong for a child. 

‘Woah, woah! Calm down! Please don’t come in, I’m not wearing pants, you guys woke me up.’ Were the first words out of Jisung’s brain in an attempt to try and keep the middle schooler out.

The middle schooler he could hold up against, no problem, (well... maybe a slight problem) the other guy, probably not, not if he was as strong as the other kid was. Not alone, without any magic. Thankfully, the older guy seemed to sense Jisung’s discomfort, and he put a hand on the girl's shoulder, reeling her back. ‘Yun.’

Thankfully, she stopped trying to barge her way into the apartment, but it also seemed to make her more irritated. ‘It’s not _fair_! They said he would be _here_!’

‘I’m really sorry. I wish I could help you, but uhhh- I don’t-’

‘We understand.’ The man spoke up. ‘Thank you for your time, sorry to disturb you.’ He bowed and urged the girl to do the same. The younger girl glared at him one last time before the two of them left. 

Jisung shut the door quickly and made a mental note to put up wards around Changbin’s apartment. There was something wrong with this place, something even more wrong with the visitors. It bothered him so _much_ that he couldn’t place his off-put feeling. Why? Why were the strangers weird? What was wrong with the girl's eyes? Why did she look like she wanted to strangle Jisung when he said he wasn't Changbin? How did they even know Changbin? The middle schooler said something about cousins? Granted, Changbin hadn’t told Jisung much about his past high school experience aside from his whole misfortune with the vampiric assistant principal. But he probably had friends and people who he didn't really like but had to be nice to anyway. He too used to be just a normal high schooler. That could see ghosts, and...vampires.

Has Changbin ever been a normal human?

‘Oh, Jisung. You're still here? Morning.’ Jisung was abruptly pulled from his thoughts when Changbin came into the living area.

‘No, I’m- yeah. I can leave if you don’t-’

‘No, no! Your good! I just- I thought you left when I didn't see you in the room or on the couch. I was just about to check the balcony. Why are you up so early?’

‘It’s like, noon Bin.’

‘Exactly. Early.’

‘Don't you have a shift today?’

Changbin stretched and yawned. ‘I managed to get the whole weekend off, and I’m glad I did. I have so much schoolwork to catch up on.’

‘Well, you can get a head start on it while I clean up your kitchen.’

‘I don't know if I trust your cooking.’

Jisung laughed. ‘You think it’s me actually cooking?’ He lit up his hands.

‘Well, in that case...’

‘Oh, Bin. Can I borrow a pair of pants? I kicked mine off last night and I’m not sure where they went.’

‘Sure. Just a warning, I might not have any clean pairs. I really have to do laundry. As you can tell, I have many guests over so I have to keep up the deadbeat high schooler living alone facade.’

‘Of course, sorry to ruin your aesthetic.’ Changbin found him a clean pair of PJ pants, but Jisung didn't care, they were comfy. As Jisung was about to head back to the kitchen he stopped. ‘Hey Bin, uhm I know this is kind of weird. Don't feel like you have to answer, but do you know anyone that would be looking for you?’

‘Not that I know of. Why, did someone ask about me?’

He should tell him about the weird people at his door. He should. But was he going to?

‘It- there-’ He stopped himself. Changbin would be mad if he never told him yet somehow found out. How would he find out? They run into the weirdos again? Then there would be bigger issues than an angry Changbin. What if Jisung had just fucked up and those people were actually important people to Changbin? Would he be mad that he chased them away?

‘There?’

 _You wanted to be his friend._ A voice said in the back of his head. _So be a friend. Friends don't lie to each other._

‘Changbin, what's your family's branch? Do you have many relatives?’ _Ah, yes, procrastinating. That’ll do you a bunch of good._

‘Actually, I don't know. I used to assume my last name was Chang and my first name was Bin, but I remember my mother calling me Changbin. But I couldn’t think of it, so I just kept stuff the way it was.’

‘Wait, you don't know your last name?’

‘Nope.’

‘And that’s never bothered you?’

‘I guess I never really put much thought into it. When I had to register for school and stuff, I realized I was an undocumented child. It was a pain to get everything sorted out, but I needed a last name for papers and stuff, so I took the last name of the social worker that helped me out with everything.’

‘Im?’

‘Yeah. It’s probably not my real last name, but it makes looking for me harder.’

‘Woah wait, is someone after you?’

‘Probably not anymore. My mother-’ Changbin paused. ‘She died when I was younger, like six. I don't have very many memories of her, and I don't remember anything before I was four or five, but the few memories I have of her, she was always on edge. Constantly looking over her shoulder, as if she was running from something. Whenever I asked, she always told me the weather made her nervous, but the excuse got old fast.’

‘That’s intense.’

‘Yeah. I never figured out what she was so scared of, it’s always been a big mystery to me. Every time I start to look into it again, the ghosts get irritated and force me to stop, so I can assume it was nothing good.’

‘They stop you? The ghosts?’

‘I guess I’m speculating when I say _they stop me_ , but every time I’ve started to re-look into the issue of my life before I truly remember it, like what my last name actually is, where I was born, who my father could possibly be, I’m always stopped or hindered in some sort of way, normally by my transparent pals. So I stop, accept for the time being that what I’m about to discover is either dangerous or harmful and hold off until the curiosity sparks up again. Which is usually whenever I unearth another small piece of who I really am.’

‘You make this sound like it’s a recurring thing.’ Jisung laughed.

‘Eh, every two years or so I go through the same cycle. I get curious, I search, I get stopped, I let it go.’

‘There were two weird people at your door. They left when you woke up.’

Changbin just shrugged. ‘Probably the stupid magazine people again. Two old ladies, right?’

‘A girl who looked like a middle schooler and a guy in his thirties.’

Changbin frowned, ‘Don’t think I’ve seen that duo before. What were they trying to sell?’

‘They wanted to meet you.’

‘What the fuck?’

‘The younger girl, I think her name was Yuekyung something, she explicitly stated she was looking for a Changbin.’

‘I don't know any middle schoolers, and I’m not on a first-name basis with any females. That’s kind of creepy- actually no, that is creepy. Wha’d you do?’

‘I told them you didn't live here and they had the wrong apartment.’

‘Thank god.’

‘The girl got really mad and insisted you were here, but they finally left. Would you mind if I put wards up around your apartment before I left?’

‘Wards?’

‘Kind of like what I have around mine. Do you ever notice anything strange when you go to my apartment?’

‘Your door’s always unlocked. Is that why? Your- wards or whatever?’

‘Yeah. I was wondering if you could see them, but I guess not. A witch can see their own wards and others depending on how strong they are. My apartment is surrounded by a blue bubble that keeps anyone with bad intentions out.’

‘How was I able to just walk in the first time then? The day when you had your wall arrangement collapse on you.’

‘I’m not too sure about that one, neither is Felix or Seungmin. Technically, my wards are supposed to keep strangers out unless I explicitly invite them in.’

‘Like vampires?’

‘What do you mean like vampires? Vampires have nothing to do with wards.’

‘Oh, I just- nevermind. More stupid inaccurate children's fables.’

‘No, I’m curious. Please share.’

‘There's this speculation that vampires have to be invited into a room or a house before they can enter. Kind of like how your wards work.’

Jisung snorted loudly. ‘That is the funniest shit I’ve heard in a good while. You make me want to read these child fantasy books, Binnie. They sound like a great source of entertainment. But anyway, I can set up wards around your apartment like I have around mine. Whoever you deem friendly will be able to enter through your front door or windows at any time, and all others will be stopped.’

‘Like, they physically won't be able to enter?’

‘As in they’ll find something else to do, like leave.’

‘Sounds handy.’

‘They work wonders against solicitors.’

* * *

Jisung had left later that Sunday, griping about how much of a mess his apartment was probably left in by his six other friends.

(‘It’s not like you have to put any effort into cleaning, magic boy.’

‘True. Being able to make things float back in place is handy sometimes.’

‘I know you have magic n shit, but I’m still amazed you got that back room as clean as you did.’

‘Hey, in the community, we call it _energy._ Sounds more sophisticated than magic, right? And that backroom stunt was a pain in the ass, it took too much out of me, there were so many heavy things back there. That was your birthday gift for the year.’

‘My birthday’s in August.’

‘Happy birthday!’

‘Gee thanks. So, energy isn't limitless?’

‘Hell no. Damn, that’d be so nice if it was. Basically, all being a witch means is that we can use our energy differently. Picture it like working out. You can’t immediately run eighty kilometres or lift a thousand kilos. It takes hard work and dedication, but instead of putting my efforts into running, I put them into telekinesis and potion making.’

‘How can you make potions when you can't even cook?’

‘Details, Changbinnie, details.’)

Monday rolled around, albeit too early for Changbin’s liking, and was an actual normal day at school. No one threw anything at him when he walked on campus, no one tried to fight him in the hallway, no one tried to trip him or use his backpack as a hoop for paper basketball. Ever since Jisung had started sitting next to him in his back-of-the-class-emo corner, his social standing had actually been improving, a miracle he never thought could come to pass.

The only strange thing about his week was the ghost incident. It was a middle-aged ghost he had seen numerous times before. He had probably lived in one of the complexes on the way to Changbin’s work. This one was dubbed Noosiance because of the impressive necktie noose the man sported along with his wrinkled business suit. Noosiance, (Nooie for short) despite his nickname, wasn't awful company. He always had intriguing stories to share when he was corporal thought to have a conversation. 

But today, Nooie was irritated. Maybe irritated was the wrong word for it, but the normally friendly ghost was more annoying than he normally would be. 

It was clear the phantom man didn’t want to have a conversation when Changbin stepped into his alleyway, but what he wasn’t expecting was Noosiance to throw a tantrum and block his way. The ghost knocked over wooden pallets and trash cans to the point where crossing the alleyway would either be near impossible to pick his way through or take too long to clean up.

‘Bruh, really? I’m already late to work!’

But the only reply he got back was incoherent screeched babblings.

Changbin sighed and turned to go a different route. This wasn’t the first time this had happened, it was just the first time it had happened with Noosiance. He normally didn’t mind the ghost, and even found him formidable company. But now he was going to be even later than he already was. 

Thankfully, the co-worker with the shift before him was just leaving as he got there, which kept him from getting in too much trouble. His boss didn't like him very much, and whenever he left on time and his shift relief was late, _he_ was the one who got in trouble for abandoning the store. Whenever he was late, or even on time and his earlier co-worker decided to leave early without any prior notice, he’s still the one to get berated. 

‘Bin? Hello? Yo, yo, helloooooooooo? Earth to Binnie.’

‘What?’ Jisung was waving his notebook in Changbin’s face to get his attention. Technically, they were supposed to be working on...whatever they had to work on, but no one actually took study hall seriously. Yesterday, the kids had put together an impromptu airplane building contest to see who could make their airplanes go the furthest. Speaking of yesterday... Yesterday was the weirdness with Nooie, yesterday he actually had a stroke of luck with not getting scolded for his tardiness, yesterday-

‘Stop zoning out on us Bin, a one-sided conversation with a wall would give me more reaction.’

‘Oh, sorry.’

‘Just because you're sitting in the emo corner, doesn't mean you're obligated to be.’

‘Shut up, Felix.’

‘Have any sevens?’

‘Depends who you're asking, Jin.’

‘You, dumbass. Jisung is being a nerd instead of playing with us.’

‘Mm. Go fish, asshole.’

Felix and Hyunjin continued making faces at one another as they denied having any cards the other wanted (Felix was a liar, he totally had two eights), and Jisung shook his head. ‘This is why I refuse to play with either of them.’

‘Because Felix is a liar?’

Hyunjin gasped. ‘I knew you had a queen! Give it!’

‘I do not!’

‘He has three queens, two eights, a three, and I think that other cards a-’

Felix threw his cards down on the desk. ‘Sungie, please, control your man.’

‘He’s not my man to control. Either stop lying or stop getting caught.’

‘This means I automatically win because you cheated.’ Hyunjin started to gather all the cards on the desk. ‘I’m adding this to the scoreboard.’

‘I resent that.’

‘Scoreboard?’

‘It’s my way to prove I’m better than Felix at card games.’ Hyunjin pulled up a note on his phone with a bunch of different games followed by numbers. He changed GO FISH 77/109 to 78/110. 

‘Fucker, just because your good at guessing what cards I have, doesn't mean your better at games than I am! Who kicks your ass in Mario kart literally every time we play?’

‘Who loses at literally every other game we play?’

‘Are you working again this weekend?’ Jisung asked Changbin, ignoring the metaphorical dick measuring contest going on between the other two. 

‘Yeah, but only a half shift because someone wanted more hours.’

‘Great, so you're coming over after, right?’

 _Am I?_ 'Uhhh-’

‘Of course, we are!’ Felix answered, then went right back to his argument with Hyunjin.

‘I didn't ask you, eavesdrop elsewhere.’

‘Sure, I’ll visit, I guess.’

‘We normally have weekend hangouts. You’ve already been to one and I guess I just assumed, ya know, I consider you part of the group.’

‘Is everyone else alright with that? Some of your friends don't seem completely comfortable around me.’

Jisung waved his hand at his concerned expression. ‘Don't worry about that, we’ll get them comfortable with you this weekend. Head over after your shift. Either everyone will already be there, or I won't be awake yet.’

Even if Changbin had been a normal human with a normal friend group, he didn't think he would appreciate them as much as he appreciated Jisung’s existence at that very moment. He smiled, ‘Yeah, sure. I’ll be there.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christler to everyone who does and doesn't celebrate Christmas! Happy holidays! 🎄🌴


	6. BBING

Before Changbin knew what he was doing, he realized he had taken the path to Jisung’s apartment instead of his own on his way home after his shift. He wasn’t getting too comfortable with them, right? There was a small feeling of doubt in the back of his mind whenever he let himself be comfortable around Jisung or his friends. A small voice that told him that it was all temporary, they would hate him in a few days, to be ready to have to let them go. The bigger, more rational part of his brain told him he was being unreasonable and that his self-doubt was getting the better of him, but it was ultimately easier to look at the small negatives than the big positives. It didn’t help that his self-worth was basically destroyed, even a year and a half later.

Just like Jisung promised, everyone was already there by the time Changbin walked in (thankfully, it wasn't the alternative. Changbin would have had an actual aneurysm if he had to wake Jisung up.) They were all squeezed together in the space made by the couch that created the living room. Chan, Jeongin, and Minho were squished on the couch with Jisung perching on one of the armrests, his feet in Minho’s lap. Hyunjin was being squished on either side by a Felix and a Seungmin on the floor. 

No one had noticed him yet. Should he just turn around and leave? Was he an inconvenience being there, coming late, disturbing their peace? They all looked so...at home with one another. Changbin had had friends before, and he had been close with other kids before, but nothing like what the others had. There was a level of trust that was far beyond anything he had ever seen with a group of friends. It made them seem like they were nothing short of family to one another, a family that didn't want any more inclusions.

‘Binnie! How long have you been standing there? You should have said something.’ Aw, fuck, too late to run away now. 

‘Not long. I just got here.’

Minho coughed out a sound that sounded half between a choke and a _liar_.

Jisung stood up from his perch on the couch arm and slung an arm over the back of Changbin’s necks and started to drag him towards the corner he was previously perched in.

Woah.

Physical contact, this was new. People would speak to him, icily, but the most physical contact he’s ever been engaged in was getting beaten up or returning the favour. This was...this was nice. Human contact was one of those things he needed more than he had realized, it had been filed away in the **unnecessary** section in his file cabinet of life.

Change was scary, and change was uncertain, but this- this change was something he could get used to.

Jisung seemed insistent on keeping his arm around Changbin too, even after he dragged the two of them down on a misshapen bean bag that looked older than Changbin himself.

He tried to focus on the bad 2000’s thriller that was playing, but it was more cheese and bad troupes than actually scary. Everyone poked fun at the trash animation and the awful script writing that was being displayed over the tv.

The best part though was the poorly depicted vampire that was trying to eating the young, blonde virgin getting mauled by garlic-flavoured holy water and melting in a beam of sunlight.

‘Vampires don’t look like that.’ Changbin muttered, not noticing the heads that turned his way or the widened eyes that were now on him instead of the tv. ‘Plus I’ve seen them out in the sunlight and eating garlic, this is bullshit.’ 

Jeongin laughed nervously. ‘What do you mean you’ve seen a vampire? I know Hyunjin is a sight when he wakes up-‘

‘Hey!’

‘-but he’s not exactly a vampire.’

‘I know he’s not a vampire. Vampires have beady eyes and this inflated ego to them. You can almost spot them in a crowd if you know what to look for.’

‘Changbin are you ok? Vampires aren't real.’ Seungmin said slowly, not looking Changbin in the eyes. 

Changbin flared at Seungmin and then turned to Jisung. ‘You didn’t tell them?’

‘That’s why I invited them.’

‘You mean you didn’t invite us over to trash your apartment?’ Minho asked from his perch on the couch. The way he was curled up to Jeongin kind of reminded him of a cat.

‘Shut up, Fuzzball. Changbin, he’s like us. We don’t have to hide around him anymore. He already knows I’m a witch, Felix drunkenly confessed he’s a star.’

‘Wait, what the fuck?’ Changbin turned to look at Jisung, who was awkwardly squished into his side. ‘That wasn’t Felix...being Felix?’

‘Why does no one believe me? If I was a witch or a furry, people would believe me.’ Both Minho and Jeongin glared at Felix. ‘I’m more of a piece of a star, a descendant of one I guess.’

‘He’s like a personal lamp. It's great.’ Hyunjin supplied.

‘Fuck off.’ Felix kicked at a cackling Hyunjin. ‘I glow and I float. Lamps don’t float. Also if I concentrate really hard, I can heal minor cuts and bruises.’

‘A personal firefly then.’ Jeongin added.

‘Innie, if you weren’t so cute I’d end you.’

‘Try me, bitch.’

‘Child, no swearing.’ Chan scolded, wrapping his arm around Jeongin’s neck and attacking his hair with his fist.

‘Hyuuuung!’

‘What are you, hyung?’ Seungmin asked, ignoring the chaos above him.

‘I think I’m human, as far as I can tell. But I’ve been able to see ghosts and most things magic since forever.’

There was silence, then a ‘You’re telling the truth,’ from Seungmin.

‘Of course, I am. If I wasn’t, I think Jisung would fry me alive.’

‘Well...’

‘Don’t even think about it. Seungmin, what are you? Wait, is that rude to ask?’

‘Nah, you’re good. But, er, it’s complicated.’

Changbin nodded. ‘What about the rest of you?’

‘Mmm, guess.’ Minho smirked.

‘A brat.’

Jisung gasped, ‘Spot on.’

Laughter ensued as well as Minho’s ears popping out of his head and a tail curling around his waist. He let out an irritated hiss.

‘Oh my god. You’re so cute. Come here, Minni.’

‘I will scratch your eyes out.’

‘Still cute. I wanna touch your ears.’

‘I would rather you not.’

‘Hyung you can touch mine!’ Jeongin’s eyes changed to orange slits and white fox ears sprouted from his head. 

‘You’re so cute! And these are really soft. Are you part cat too?’

‘I’m offended.’

‘Shut up, Minho.’ quipped Seungmin.

‘Nah, I’m way cooler. Imma gumiho.’

‘The fox things? Like in the legends? Do you eat children? Or their souls?’

‘What kinda weird shit are you reading?’ Hyunjin asked.

Jeongin made a face. ‘I like fried chicken. Fried children doesn't sound like it would taste very good.’

‘I- ya know what, never mind. Wikipedia has failed me. Are you gonna make me guess too, Hyunjin?’

‘You’d never guess, but sure.’

‘Hmmmm, yeah, I give up. Seungmin?’

‘Wow. E for effort.’ said Felix.

‘But there wasn’t any effort.’ snorted Chan.

‘Exactly. Which is why he got a failing grade.’

‘It’s kinda embarrassing.’ Hyunjin shot Seungmin a look. 

‘I’ve told you. Be proud of what you are.’

Seungmin sighs. ‘I can speak well. And like, communicate with nature. And be uh, persuasive with my words.’

‘Like a siren? Or a cooler version of Snow White?’

‘Kinda I guess, but I don’t turn into half a fish and I don’t eat people. And I don't think Snow White was able to make vines strangle anyone.’

‘Huh. What is so bad about being a not-really siren?’

‘I- I can’t control it very well. So when I tell people to do stuff for me, they don’t do it because they want to. They do it because some otherworldly force tells them they have to. They literally can’t refuse.’

‘Is that why you are always so quiet?’

‘Yeah. I was scared I’d scare you away with it.’

‘I think,’ Jisung started. ‘I think Binnie’s immune to us.’

‘Whaddya mean?’

‘I mean, I tried to erase his memory a few weeks ago, but all it did was knock him out.’

‘And give me the worst migraine ever. Please don't do that ever again.’

‘Ah right, sorry.’ At least Jisung had the audacity to look sheepish.

‘It might just be you though,’ Changbin said. ‘Minnie, try to make me do something.’

Seungmin looked terrified at the mere suggestion. ‘But why?’

‘I’m not saying anything drastic. Just order me to get you a snack from the kitchen or bring you a book, something simple. I just wanna test Jisung’s theory.’

Seungmin relaxed quite a bit at the suggestion, but the tension never left his shoulders. ‘Ok, uhh, I’ve never tried to do this purposely before. Changbin, give me your phone.’

He said it with such conviction that the thought entered Changbin’s mind. _Seungmin wants your phone, what are you waiting for? Give it to him._

But then something else in him said: _What? No! Why?_

‘No. It’s my phone.’

‘Changbin, your phone. Now.’

Minho, Chan, and Felix held their phones out to Seungmin.

Changbin definitely felt the tug of the command. He felt like he needed to give Seungmin his phone, or something bad was going to happen. 

What would happen?

_Seungmin would be sad. He would be disappointed in me because I didn't give him my phone._

‘No.’ The _no_ took a lot of effort, but he was able to force it out.

‘Changbin, give him your phone.’ Jisung repeated.

Changbin whirled around ‘What? I thought you were-’ he cut off abruptly. Jisung’s eyes were glazed over, staring emptily at Changbin. 

‘Seungmin, I get it, cut it out.’

Seungmin kept starting at Changbin. ‘Snap out of it!’

Seungmin seemed to come out of his haze, and so did the rest of the room. When he realized how far into the demonstration he seemed to have gotten, he curled into himself. ‘This is why I don’t like to use it.’

‘I don’t think I’m immune to you, Seungmin.’ At that Seungmin seemed to cringe. ‘I felt the weight of the command, yet I still have my phone. So I guess I’m just good at resisting.’ A beat of silence followed, then he asked, ’Do you want a hug?’

After hesitating a moment, Seungmin nodded and wrapped himself around Changbin, who was now half hanging off the bean bag. ‘What about you, Hyunjin? Since I’ll never guess.’

‘I’m kind of like Seungmin, but completely different at the same time. My father was an incubus, so I inherited some of his traits. Dashing good looks, charming personality-‘

‘Inflamed ego.’

‘Shut. As a downside, I do have to feed off sexual energy sometimes, but usually just kissing someone will do. Because I’m only half incubus. I don’t even have horns, just an annoying tail that I can’t figure out how to make go away.’ As if it was summoned, Hyunjin’s tail flicked up behind him and curled around his bicep. 

'Since none of the lore about vampires or witches is true, is all the stuff I know about incubuses false too?'

'Actually, humanity's depiction of incubi and succubi is pretty spot-on, but then again, it's not a hard race to screw up. We eat sex, literally. You won't die from banging an incubus, and incubuses isn't a word.'

Changbin nodded, unsure what to do with that information. ‘What about you Chan?’

‘I’m a wannabe Elsa. I can freeze nearly anything I touch, except I have it under better control than Elsa. And I'm cooler. Ha, geddit?’

Minho shoved the blond off the couch. 'End your life.'

‘You’re like that one chick from H2O!’ Felix yells.

‘I don’t know if I’m proud or disappointed at that statement, Fe.’

‘Pissadointed - proud yet disappointed.’

Chan laughed from his new position on the floor. ‘I’ll take it for now.’

'I suddenly have the urge to watch Chan create Olaf the Second.’

‘I tried to create Frosty the Snowman when I was younger, and just about cried when I couldn’t animate him.’

‘It’s his most traumatic childhood memory.’ Minho stage whispered way too loud.

‘Hey, don't go sharing my secrets!’ Chan scolded. ‘There are a few kiddos out there that are like specialty witches, except their energy is concentrated on one element instead of being general, like Jisungie. Normally the elements are one of the four main ones, earth, wind, all that. But, uh, I’m some kind of mutated elemental and my energy likes ice better than water.’

‘Chan hyung’s also way more powerful than an elemental mage, so instead of a mage, he’s just considered as a mutant by the rest of the community. Which is stupid if you ask me.’ Jisung said.

‘Aww, thanks Sungie. I didn't realize you cared so much.’ The blond male twisted to wrap around the witch in a surprise hug, which made Jisung let out an undignified squawk. Changbin was starting to feel borderline claustrophobic with all the people in his space.

‘So, wait.’ Changbin spoke up. ‘You- the thing you did to the storage room door-’

‘Ah, that.’ Chan finally let go of a flailing Jisung. ‘I froze the bolt and Jisung switched the way the door opened. When I dragged you back to the counter and grilled you with useless questions, that was me just buying Jisung time so he could fix everything.’

‘That’s why I was fucking exhausted after cleaning everything up. I had to fix the door, and clean the back room.’

‘It’s why I literally dragged him out of the store.’ Chan said cheerily. ‘Sungie looks like a toothpick-’

‘Bruh-’

‘And feels like one, but when you have to drag his scrawny ass upstairs, you feel all ninety-seven pounds of him.’

‘Oh yeah? Well, this sub-one-hundred punk is about to beat your ass-’

Changbin had to hold Jisung back from lunging at Chan and knocking his couch over. Jisung complained, not unlike a five-year-old being denied ice cream, but then the two resorted to making faces at one another.

‘I’m still not sure how Chan hyung is the oldest of all of us.’ Seungmin sighed.

‘Technically, he’s not.’ Jeongin snorted.

‘Ah right, I forgot.’

‘Wait, I thought Jeongin was a grade younger than you?’

Jeongin just shrugged. ‘Ha, I’m only there to blend in. I’ve gone through school so many times, it's boring at this point.’

‘Jongin's actually the oldest of us.’ Hyunjin spoke up. ‘I think he’s, what, ninety?’

Changbin choked on nothing. ‘ _Ninety_?’

‘Excuse you, I am eighty-nine. Gumiho’s live practically forever, so by their standards, I’m still a young child. My older brother, he’s actually old. He’s in his nine-hundreds, but that’s measured in human’s perception of time.’

‘So, what...does time work differently for you too?’

‘Time is a human concept, moments measured into numbers that have meaningful symbols behind them. Like days, and weeks.’

‘Ooooookay, that’s enough of your existential old person philosophies, Innie. We don’t wanna give Binnie a crisis yet. Give it a bit before you start your theories.’

‘Oh no, don't get him started.’ Felix rolled his eyes. ‘He’ll go forever. Don't ask him about the evolution of blenders. You’ll want to be deaf by the end of it.’

‘Living forever gets boring, you can’t blame me for wanting to share!’

‘It’s alright, Jeongin. Maybe another day though, I can only take so much information in one day. My sad mortal brain is over fried right now.’

‘Ah, that's right. I forgot how fragile the mortal mind is.’ Changbin was sure that wasn’t supposed to be a backhanded compliment, but he’d take it for now.

‘So you’ve encountered a vampire before?’ Hyunjin asked.

‘Yeah, it wasn't fun.’

‘Oooooo, storytime!’ Felix exclaimed, shifting his attention to Changbin. Everyone was now looking at him, and he was a little unnerved, especially by Chan and Minho. Minho was intimidating with his hard to read resting bitch face naturally, but with cat ears and slit eyes, it somehow made his facade more... _Don’t fuck with me, I have the power of god and anime on my side._ Chan was just intimidating because he was hot.

‘Back in my junior year, well the first time I went through my junior year, a teacher asked me to drop off papers in the principal's office. On my way back to the classroom, I heard arguing in one of the offices, and honestly thought it was two students. I poked my head in to see if I could help, but it was the assistant principal all vampired out trying to eat the student council president.’

‘Oh shit.’

Seungmin frowned. ‘So you willingly tried to fend off a vampire knowing you're completely mortal?’

‘The whole interaction wasn’t that willing, but kinda? The guy looked like he was legitimately about to eat her, so I tried to pull them apart and got thrown into a desk.’

Minho, the bitch, looked like he was trying not to laugh. ‘I can see why you might have a grudge against the species.’

‘I dunno if they’re all bad, I’ve only met the one. But I think he especially had something shoved up his ass because if throwing me wasn't enough, he cursed me.’

Now Minho was laughing. 

‘Oh, Sung had to do a project on curses, would you know how to negate it?’ Chan asked.

‘Yes? No, maybe? Vampire curses are more complicated than say witch curses. They're more physiological than physical.’

‘I don't get it.’

‘Don't worry, you don't have to. Uhhh, oh shit! I have notes! Somewhere...around here.’

‘Yikes,’ Hyunjin pulled a face, ‘You're never gonna actually find them, are you?’ 

‘I will! Maybe...one day.’

‘They're probably in your mirror room along with all the other junk you have no idea what to do with.’ Sungmin snorted.

‘Actually, you might be right.’ Jisung stood up from his spot on the bean bag, which caused Changbin to shift on to the floor with how flat the makeshift chair went, and went into the blue mirror room.

The room wasn't actually blue, but it was the one where he had first seen Jisung’s blue energy. Changbin followed Jisung and Seungmin to the doorway of the room and was initially shocked at how much of a mess the space was. There was a giant floor length mirror with a clear circle around it, and the rest of the junk in the room was pushed to the wall, haphazardly stacked. Jisung was going through one of the more precarious stacks, digging in boxes and throwing things on the floor.

‘What’s the giant mirror for?’

‘Because Jisung is a vain asshole.’ Seungmin snorted.

‘Yo, chill. I didn't ask to be roasted today. I’m working on a portal type thing. I’m trying to make the mirror a portal to other mirrors, but I have no idea if I’m doing it right. So that’s my pilot version.’

‘Was that what you were working on when I walked in on your lights the first time I visited?’

‘Oh yeah, I forgot about that.’

Seungmin stopped looking through piles of junk and advanced on Jisung. ‘You _forgot_ about it?’

‘Um-’

‘You _forgot_ that a mortal you didn't know just, just _walked in on you_ while you were _casually performing magic_ no less...was that what you meant when you said you could just erase his memories again?'

‘Please don't.’ Changbin spoke up, ‘It doesn't work and just causes me pain. Didn't Jisung already mention this?’

‘He just mentioned he tried to erase your memory. He never said _why_.’ Seungmin was seething.

‘I don't get it. Why is it such a bad thing that I saw...whatever was happening.’

Seungmin let out a breath slowly, seeming to calm down a bit. ‘Human, most humans aren't as kind or as accepting as you are, Changbin hyung. There are groups of people out there that hunt creatures like us, beings with any forms of unnatural magic or energy manipulation. We have to be so careful with our everyday lives that no one suspects that we are anything other than a normal human. That’s why Jeongin’s going through school again with us, it would look suspicious if a kid that looks like a high school sophomore wasn’t in school.

‘That’s why no one was terribly welcoming to you either. Sure, vampire curses are shitty and all, but the fear from what a woke mortal could do to us outweighed the fear of, well, basically everything else.’

‘Wait,’ Changbin scowled, confused. ‘Does that mean the curse is over? Because I have friends now?’

‘I’m not quite sure. If Ji can ever find his notes, those might help explain everything. But I think now that we know you won't just- you know won't put us in any harm.’

‘I like you guys. Why would I tell anyone?’

Seungmin just stared at Changbin, his expression unreadable, until Jisung broke up the silent starring contest. 

‘They should be in here, I think. Somewhere. Maybe?’ A metal cylinder fell on Jisung’s head with a loud _Bbing_ , and a box fell over and a bunch of paper spilled out. ‘This looks promising?’

‘One day, I swear, you're going to be forced to clean out your apartment.’

‘Haha, sure, Min. One day- oh fuck, found them!’ Jisung dug a stack of dusty crumpled papers out of the pile of junk he was sifting through. ‘Yikes, my handwriting is trash.’

The top paper that was pulled out read _Jisung’s notes on that one really thick and boring magic book (the one with the weird-ass runes) so you don't have to read it again - You’re welcome future self_ in scratchy handwriting. ‘Did you take notes, or rewrite the book?’

‘Notes on a really big book. You think this is a lot, you should see the tome all these came from. I borrowed it from someone, so I can't show you, but the stupid thing was thicker than about both your thighs.’

Changbin ignored the thigh comment.

Jisung started to go through some of the papers and reorganize them into a dusty binder he found amongst the pile of junk.

‘Hey listen,’ Jisung started while still staring at a page of notes. ‘I think your ability to see ghosts has something to do with a near-death experience you had. Either that or you died and somehow came back. I’m not 100% sure about that as my source is kinda sketchy-’

‘If your source is Jae hyung or Brian hyung-' Seungmin started.

‘Hush, heathen. But yeah. They had a good argument but-’

‘I died?’ Changbin asked, more confused. 

‘As I said, it's a possibility. OR we could be totally off. You just might be a special human. There have been a few of those here and there, but not really. It’s more likely you have a long line of supernatural blood relatives, and it either got intermixed or diluted somewhere along the way and you came out, uhh, hmm, how do I put this kindly? Like a dud.’

‘I’ve always wanted to be a dead battery, thanks.’

‘Hush, you knew what I meant. It used to be this whole fule for feud type of thing-’

‘Rule of Feud?’

‘Ugh, whatever! Shut up, Seungmin! Stop being intelligent. It used to be a big deal to keep interspecies marriages illegal and everything, but that was like 900 years ago and people are more progressive now, or at least they should be. But like I said, it could be several things.’

‘We could run a species test?’ Seungmin asked.

‘Sure yeah, but those are about as accurate as drug store pregnancy tests.’ Jisung rolled his eyes.

‘Isn't there a potion he can drink or like a PH test type thing that can be done?’ 

‘Yeah, but that's a lot of work on my part, bitch.’

‘PH test? I don't like the sound of either of these.’ Changbin made a face.

‘It’s nothing bad.’ Jisung said. ‘Basically, I make a potion and you put your DNA in-’

‘A strand of hair or something-’

‘Yeah that, and depending on the colour it turns, we know your roots, what you come from.’

‘Then why not do that?’

‘The potion’s a bitch to make, and it takes forever. It’s one of those picky ones that have to be at a certain temperature and humidity constantly, can only be brewed on the third day of the second week of the month, there must be a full moon during the process, I only have half the ingredients. Stuff like that.’

‘Could I help? I’m kinda curious, and it sounds like the safest way.’

Jisung sighed. ‘I’ll look into it. If I have time to gather ingredients before the process has to be started, I’ll let you know.’

* * *

Jisung’s amazing notes on vampires:

_Vampires:_

_Twilight is wrong - and disgraceful? I wouldn't know_

_They can walk in sunlight, they can eat garlic?? Who even came up with that one?_

_Holy water isn't a thing_

_Yeah sure, exorcists exist - priests? Not really, unless you count the human ones_

_Creatures of_ ~~_sprite_ ~~ _spite_

_Are always salty they can't eat real food and have to live in basically constant pain_

_They do drink blood_

_They don't have laws about what they can or can't drink from_

_Basically they're left alone, because they know if they cause too many issues human hunters will come after them_

_Despite them being heavily romanticized_

_They're miserable creatures of the night_

~~_Closer to bats than actual people_ ~~

~~_Like a centaur, but if a bat fused with a human_ ~~

_Nope not going there_

_Dhampirs:_

_They Are a thing, and they exist - more like the media romanticized version of vampires._

_Are technically half-vampire - very few of them_

_If you have to run into anyone from the_ ~~_vampirkjsdhfj_ ~~ _vampire race, you wanna run into them_

_Don't have a shadow_

_Usually have daddy issues_

_I think they can teleport or something_

_8/10 of them are pretty chill_

_82 374 4873 <\- chill guy who said he’d help if I got in trouble (vampire hunter) is a dhampir, really needed a haircut, but friendly - PUT THIS NUMBER IN UR PHONE DUMBASS _

_Vampire curses - are ugly_

_Normally you have to do what the curse prevents you from doing to break it_

_The curses usually work on other people_

_So uhhhhh_

_A vampire curses you to have orange hair - yonk this is so bad but I can't think of a better example!_

_Everyone will perceive you have orange hair, sometimes even yourself._

_You need to prove to others that your hair is no longer orange to make the curse ineffective_

_Maybe dye it another colour? Compare a shirt with the colour of your hair? When people realize that your hair may not actually be orange, the curse will be broken_


	7. 808 n0 b8 m8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy happy nee yee may 2021 be free of woe

It was a Tuesday when someone called Changbin. At first, he panicked, not realizing the obnoxious sound was coming from his phone. Why was the default ringtone a siren? Now that he had people in his life that would actually utilize the call feature on his phone, he should change it. Which actually meant asking Jisung or Seungmin how to change it, or for one of them to change it for him. 

So far, it has been a normal Tuesday. He and Jisung had dutifully ignored their Korean language teacher in exchange for throwing notes to one another with different games of hangman on them, Felix occasionally getting involved and showing off his English skills by making the puzzles with English words. 

(Changbin knew that he should pay better attention in school, it's a miracle that any high school accepted a drop out like him in the first place, but sometimes being attentive was _so hard_ and whoever was lecturing was _so boring_.)

But now someone was _calling_ him. After his initial freak out about the phenomenon, Changbin realized how normal someone calling another person was, but to him, it had seemed like forever since another person had called him.

‘Uh, yeah?’ _Good going, that is not how you answer a phone._

‘Changbin! My man! How goes it, on this fine....what day is it? Tuesday afternoon?’

‘Good? I guess? Who is this?’

‘Ah, shit sorry, I never gave you my number. This is Chan.’ 

_CHAN WAS CALLING YET THREE SECONDS INTO THE PHONE CALL YOU GO AND MAKE AN UTTER FOOL OUT OF YOURSELF-_

‘Ah, hi.’ Why was he alive? He didn't deserve to live.

‘Hi. I wanted to see if you were free right now. I meant to have Jisung ask you, but it seems the squirrel forgot.’ There was yelling in the background, and Changbin could barely catch what Chan said to the other. ‘That was Jisung complaining and trying to give me excuses. I know he mentioned you work after school sometimes, so I wanted to see if you were free either today or sometime this week.’

‘I’m free today and Thursday after school. Why?’

‘Jisungie and I wanted to see if you wanted to come down to the studio with us. I don't have any looming deadlines for a while, and Sungie’s been here more often now that school’s let up a bit.’

Oh, Chan was being serious when he offhandedly mentioned inviting him to his expensive workspace. It sounded almost unreal, someone who produced and worked on music as a stable career was saying he could use his professional-grade, expensive ass equipment to... to what? Screw around? Make some trash beats that would later be archived on a Soundcloud account? To make samples that would go in a ‘desperate times’ folder? 

This was an opportunity of a lifetime, he would be a fool to say-

‘Oh, uhh, I dunno. I stopped all my music stuff a while ago.’ That.

‘Hyung, hyung. Put it on speaker.’ That sounded like Jisung. ‘Hey Beanpole, get your scrawny ass down to the studio so I can show off.’

‘I don't know where the stupid studio is you impatient jerk-’

‘This is why I wanted Jisung to ask you.’ Chan sighed, ‘Then the two of you would have walked here together. I can get Jisung to send you a map. Or I could make him come get you.’

‘Can I take your car?’

‘You think I trust you with my motorized vehicle? Not in this universe.’

‘But it's so faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar.’

‘And the KTX exists for this very reason-’

‘I can just...walk if you send directions. Or take a bus if it’s far.’

‘Bless you, Bin. If only Jisung was patient like you.’

‘But I didn't sneeze?’

The crackling over the phone could have been either a spotty connection or laughter. ‘I’ll send you the location, then you send me what your eta would be. See ya soon!’ With that, Chan hung up. His phone _plonged_ with a location that was a twenty-minute walk away. He could turn down the nearest alleyway and start making his way there now, or he could catch a bus. But the bus was slightly out of the way and he had no idea when the next one was coming. 

Plus, walking was relaxing. Riding a crowded bus was stressful.

Taking the next right, he started down an old alleyway. Just as he was about to cross onto the main road, a glowing orb materialized in front of his face. What was this? A will o'the wisp? One of those spirits that would lead lost travellers off the path and into the caves of hungry monsters? 

_Follow me!_

Now he was even more inclined to do the exact opposite, and run in the other direction. Plus it was floating (Hovering? Levitating? Suspended-ing?) down the alley he had just walked through.

A young girl, who couldn't have been older than eight, appeared at the mouth of the alley. ‘Follow it’. Her voice was distorted and glassy, making her sound much older. The little girl's eyes were what gave her away, though. They were white and glazed over, sad as if they had seen too much. ‘Follow my light, child.’

‘But why?’ _Ah yes, intelligent words by the great Im Changbin._

‘Because I’ll break this girl's neck if you don’t, and no one wants a vengeful spirit on their trail.’

‘Please don’t do that. That’ll be messy. But I have to go this way.’

The orb of light floated back into his face and turned a deep dangerous shade of red. 

_Follow._

This time the voice reverberated within Changbin’s being, within his soul, and was much less cute than the first time the orb spoke.

Changbin let out a sigh; this ghost wasn’t going to let him off easy. Hopefully, all they wanted was to lead him to a shrine or a grave so he could pay his respects.

It was unusual that a ghost possessed anyone. Most of the time, ghosts weren’t strong enough to possess anything, let alone interact. This was either an extremely vengeful ghost or the person was one of significant energy resources when they died, like a mage or another Otherworldly creature.

He turned to follow the light when the little girl suddenly tackled him from behind. She couldn’t have weighed more than seventy pounds, but seventy pounds of surprise later and Changbin fell flat on his face. He was about to tell the spirit off for being rude, but then he heard his name.

‘-Changbin oppa. Why haven’t we found him yet?’ A different girl spoke, frustrated. She sounded older than the spirit that had just tackled him, maybe around a high schooler's age?

‘You must be patient, Yun.’ That was a different voice, a male. Who was looking for him? Or was it even him? There were many people named Changbin out there, right? 

Could these be the same people who were looking for his mother? As much as she tried to play it off, to leave Changbin out of the know, somehow his six-year-old self knew that they were being hunted. His mother thought the two of them could run from their problems forever. Unfortunately, forever came sooner than later, and while her death was still largely a mystery to him, he had an inkling that the people after him were responsible for it.

‘The elders grow impatient. Why haven’t any of our tracking efforts _worked?_ ’

‘We may be looking in the wrong places.’

‘But we’ve looked everywhere!’

The other guy sighed. He sounded tired like he wanted to be done with the bratty high schooler. ‘Let us go back and retrace our steps.’

‘But-’ The girl was cut off by a loud truck honking. When Changbin turned his head to the alley opening, the two figures that had been there, were gone.

Before he was able to ask any question, the young girl got off of him, stood up, and brushed off her dress. _Follow my light_. Her eyes were now black, and they seared into his soul.

Suddenly, Changbin was not opposed to following the ball of light.

_Follow me! Follow me!_

If pixies existed (he'd have to ask Jisung about that one later), he imagined they would act like this. Small, excitable, quick to anger. He also really hoped no one else could see the wisp of light. Since, technically, it counted as a ghost, he didn't think the average person would be able to see it, but it would still cause a stir if people could.

A left, a right. Down a sketchy road, up through a nice neighbourhood. Around a middle school, through someone’s front yard ( _really_?) behind a grocery mart, down more stairs.

After forever (ok, it was really thirty-six minutes, but it felt like forever), the wisp stopped in front of a building and dissipated. Oh god, where was he? Great, a ghostly light had led him to the middle of nowhere and disappeared. Fantastic, wonderful, just what the fucking wanted-

His phone rang again, this time it was Jisung. He answered, not quite sure what to say, but Jisung solved that problem for him.

'Hey, I know you said twenty for how long it would take for you to get here, but it’s been like forty and I was wondering if you got lost. I don't know how well you know this part of town, so I was wondering if you wanted me to go find you and- where are you right now? Are you close? I can-’

‘Jisung? Hi. I’m- actually I'm not too sure where I am, I think I got lost. I’m outside a building called Stray Records? It’s across from an overpriced looking cafe?’

‘Oh. Don't move! I’ll come to get you. Stay there!’ Was it normal for people to just hang up like that?

Changbin was still staring at the black screen of his phone when Jisung found him. ‘Hey, you made it.’

‘Uh, yeah.’ Changbin blinked. ‘Where am I?’

‘Ah, this is the recording studio where Chan hyung works, and that-’ Jisung pointed to the coffee shop. ‘That is where we spend too much time trying to think of good ideas and too much money getting jacked on sugar and caffeine.’

‘Sound glorious.’

‘It’s great! Come on, I’ll show you around! Technically, I’m not supposed to be here, but none of the staff really care since I fix everything Chan hyung breaks, and I run the coffee errands.’

‘Is it fine for me to be here then?’

‘Any friend of Chan’s is a friend to all. So by property of association-’

‘Of course.’

‘You’ll be fine! So over there is the sad excuse there is for a cafeteria, it's also the breakroom. Over there're the elevators, and around the corner is the door to the stairs. Chan’s studio is on the fifth floor, but the elevators are so old I’d rather die from the stairs than die in the elevator. Oh! Normally the front desk lady is here, her name’s Jooyeon I think, but she’s pretty nice. I think she’s on a break. The other floors are all just different studios and training rooms, so you’re not missing out on anything if you only see the fifth floor.’

After climbing five flights of hollow tin stairs ( _Christ_ he was out of shape, _how_ did Jisung still have energy?), he followed the hyper male down a hallway until he stopped in front of a sliding door that was half-open.

‘Tada! This is where we spend way too much of our time!’

Someone had their back to the door and was hunched over a keyboard, shoulders tense and glaring at the large suspended monitor. 

‘And here, we have a wild Bang Chan in his natural habitat. Stressed and zoned the fuck out to everything around him. Watch this.’ Jisung walked over to a coffee mug filled with cheap plastic pens and lobbed one at Chan’s head. The pen froze midair just as it was about to make contact with the back of the blond’s head, and dropped to the ground.

The mage finally tore his eyes from the screen and to the still-open door, catching Jisung with his arm still extended from throwing the pen.

‘Jisung, stop throwing my pens. You’re actually going to break something expensive one day. Welcome, Changbin, to my personal hell.’

‘Um, thank you?’

Chan laughed. ‘I’m kidding, it’s not that bad. I’m just working on something that’s been making me want to hang myself, but other than that, life’s good!’

‘Doesn't sound that great, but alright.’

‘Don't mind him, he’s just being a grumpy boomer-’ Chan threw the pen back at Jisung, but this time, it nailed the younger straight in between the eyes. ‘Fucking- OW. Bitch. Hyung’s just been trying to get this one thing to work out for like eighty-four years-’

‘Nothing’s been right, you know what I mean? It’ll work, but it won't be what I _want._ ’

‘The best part is he doesn't know what he wants.’ Jisung snorted, still rubbing the slight red spot in between his eyes.

‘Can I hear it? I may not be of any help, but maybe, I dunno- a fresh pair of ears and a different opinion may help?’

‘Yeah, sure. Pull up a chair.’ Chan rolled back over to his set up, leaving a gap for Changbin to pull up one of the roller chairs shoved in the corner. Jisung, the brat, sat down in Changbin’s lap instead of pulling up another chair, claiming there _wasn’t enough space._

Chan closed a bunch of stuff on one screen, moved a bunch of windows over to another, and hit play on something, only for there to be no sound. ‘Ah shit. Give me a sec.’ After five more minutes of Chan fiddling with sound settings, unplugging and replugging his headphones in about six more times, the volume finally worked with his headphones unplugged. ‘Alright, finally. Here.’

The song started up, a slow 808 pattern growing with the overlying melody. ‘I’m not sure what the best transition would be from the intro to the first chorus.’ Chan said as the vocals started up.

‘It does sound a little empty.’

‘Exactly, and I’m not sure what to shove in there to fill it up. The many things I've tried have all clashed with something. It’s the same case for the chorus to bridge as well as the verse to chorus transition.’

Changbin just nodded, wanting to get all the way through the song before he actually suggested anything. Wow, this brought back so many memories. So many moments when he was feeling especially sad or lonely, and he would pull out a worn spiral notebook filled with scribbles and depressing thoughts and transfer all his feelings from that onto his out of date, cracked, version of FLStudio. The first time, and only time, he had ever shared his sound cloud with a close friend of his, he was laughed at, ridiculed. _You actually wrote this? This is garbage! Try finding a different hobby, Bin._ Granted, looking back at everything he wrote, it was trash. His mixing skills were rather amateuristic, the piano in the background always a bit too loud, the drum patch never gelling quite well. But maybe, just maybe, with his newfound set of friends, he would be able to grow. Not only in the areas of his secret hobby held close to his heart, but also socially, and as a person. 

Then the song hit the bridge. ‘Woah, is that you singing?’ Changbin asked, pinching Jisung’s thigh. Dang, the toothpick had more thigh than it seemed.

Jisung yelped. ‘Don't do that!’

‘You're the one who fucking sat on me!’

‘Stop it.’ He smacked Changbin’s shoulder. 

‘The fucking audacity. I was going to comment on how nice you sound in the track, but now I think it’s all Chan’s doing.’

Chan shot him a look that said _watch it._ What he needed to watch, he wasn’t quite sure.

The beanpole stilled, ‘You think I sound ok?’ Ah, that was it. Jisung was self-conscious of his singing. He probably sang a guide for Chan, not anticipating it would be used or it would ever get out to the public. A nervousness Changbin understood all too well.

‘You sound fucking amazing. Why didn’t you tell me you could put Ariana Grande to shame?’

Now Jisung was a bright shade of pink. ‘Ah, I’m not that good. Chan asked If I could sing a guide, but he ended up using it.’ _Bingo._ ‘I think I’m kinda pitchy, and I want to redo it, especially if it’s going to be part of something, but he won't let me.’

‘Yo, if this is you being pitchy, you must be absolutely amazing on key.’

‘Stop it.’ Jisung retreated into his hoodie. Chan shot him another look, but this one was more fond than scolding, something that made Changbin relax a great bit.

‘Any thoughts?’ Chan asked when the track had finished.

‘I think it’s pretty fire already, but I can see what you mean about something missing for the transitions. I’m not so sure about the intro, but for the bridge, maybe you could do an off-beat variation of the baseline you had in the beginning in low mids instead of bass. So go, like, a half octave up? Do it in thirds? If you do that, you could try mixing it with the original melody as some sort of counter-melody, and maybe use that at the end in a fade-out.’

Chan stared at the corner of the monitor for a minute. ‘Hmmm...if I...And then...ok, and here...’ He pulled out a notebook and started scribbling. ‘This might be something I can work with. Switch places with me, I need my midi board.’

Changbin thought about actually getting up, but Jisung just shoved the chair they were both into where Chan had been seconds previous. From his new spot, Changbin could see the small recording booth through the window now that the large monitor wasn’t blocking his view.

‘There’s a ghost in your recording booth.’ A haggard-looking old woman in a hanbok floated amongst the recording equipment, giving an evil eye to each new piece of technology she spotted.

‘Woah really?’ Jisung’s head snapped out of his sweater, almost hitting Changbin in the chin, but Chan remained unphased. ‘I don't see anything?’

‘Most ghosts are invisible to practically everyone. Only the flashy one’s want to be seen.’

‘Does that mean someone died in here?’

‘No. I mean, sure, someone could have, but ghosts go wherever they want. Only the ones waiting for something tie themselves to objects or locations. This lady was probably either curious of what was happening in the building, or was looking for someone.’

‘Oooooh, impressive Binnie.’

‘Alright, how’s this?’

‘Chan hyung you killed our mood.’

‘What mood? We didn't have one going.’

‘I’m hurt, Bin.’

‘This is my workspace. You can either fuck off with your mood or shut up and listen.’

‘Yessir.’

‘Uh-’

Chan cut Changbin’s thoughts off by hitting play on the sample melody he had just constructed in...three minutes. Damn, that was impressive. It would normally take Changbin half a day to make something he was content with. 

‘Ooooooo, I like that.’ Jisung commented, flailing to the beat. 

‘I think I do too. Now If I mix it with the end and before the bridge...’ Chan plugged his headphones back in and got to work.

‘I like how he takes five minutes to make the audio work when he unplugs his headphones, but when he plugs them back in, it just works.’

‘And such is life. Are you going to get off now?’

‘Never. You look like a twig, but you’re actually quite comfortable to sit on. I take back ever bad thing I said about your thighs.’

‘Ugh, fuck off.’

‘Ya know, I was thinking-’

‘A dangerous way to start anything, but continue.’

‘Die. Anyway- The potion thing I mentioned a few days ago-

‘The one that’ll tell me what I really am?’

‘Yeah, that one. Well, a full moon just passed.’

Changbin expected Jisung to say something more, but he remained silent. ‘Am I supposed to know what that means?’

‘Oh, right! So basically, this potion's a total bitch to make. I need ingredients that I don't have, I need a few ingredients a few hours fresh, and I need to let it brew for days, one of which needs to be a full moon, and a new moon. Why? I have no fucking clue, but I can start it just when the new moon is about to hit if we gather the ingredients before then.’

‘What kind of ingredients would you even need for a potion like that?’

‘Oh, the usual, sage, elderberry, nettles, sunflower seed shells, tree bark, patchouli. The more rare ingredients, like perola drops, sunveil, a spine of a three-eyed frog, those are the ones We’d have to go harvesting for.’

‘Do frogs even have spines?’

‘Short ones, but yes. Frogs have one hundred and fifty-nine bones, but only seventy-two of them are suitable for potion making.’

‘Useless facts I’ll never use, thanks.’

‘Who knows, Binnie. Maybe you’ll be a natural.’

‘Uh, yeah. I don't think so. Oh! I had a question, and I just remembered it.’

‘Ask away.’

‘I think I got it.’ Chan smiled, pulling off his headphones. _Ugh, don't smile at me, it’s too bright-_

‘I’ll ask later. Let’s hear it.’ This time, Chan only spent a minute and a half trying to get the _stupid fucking sonuva-_ sound working.

‘The countermelody fits well at the bridge, but does the ending sound too busy to you?’ Jisung asked, leaning toward the monitor, putting most of his weight on Changbin’s knees.

‘Jisung, either get off or scoot back. You're killing my knees, man.’

‘Ah, shit sorry.’ The younger finally got off of the shorter, and Changbin wasn’t sure where the wistful feeling was coming from. Was it the loss of warmth? The loss of human contact? Changbin turned to look at the screen and missed the questioning glance Chan sent Jisung.

‘What if you faded out the main melody and just had the countermelody end the song? And then just add a root stinger at the end.’

‘Or what if you faded out the countermelody earlier and ended with just the melody, no 808 or drum.’

‘Would the cutoff seem too sudden if it ended with the vocals?’

For the next hour, the trio went over different options on how to tweak the song to Chan’s liking. At one point, Chan just copied the song onto two different MacBooks and told the two of them to do what they wanted to with it and to see how it came out. He was having so much fun, got so carried away, he didn't realize how late it had gotten.

‘Oh shit! I missed the last bus!’

‘Ah, don't worry about that. I can take you home.’ Chan said, eyes not leaving his screen.

‘Are you sure? I live kinda far from here.’

‘You can just spend the night at my place, it’s close by where Chan hyung lives, so not out of the way at all.’

‘You're fine with that?’

‘Yeah, no problem. I have a spare toothbrush you can use and I’m pretty sure my pyjama pants would fit you.’

‘Ok then.’

‘Lemme finish up this one thing, then we’ll leave.’ As much as he wanted to believe Chan, he felt like one thing would take the perfectionist hours.

Jisung leaned over and loudly whispered, ‘That means we're gonna be here until four am,’ confirming Changbin’s thoughts.

‘I heard that, scoundrel. And I just saved everything. You know you've been at it too long when all bass patches sound the same. Let’s go.’

Back down the stairs (Chan too had forewarned him to beware the elevators) and into Chan’s beat-up sedan. Even though it was dark out, Changbin had no idea where he was for the majority of the ride back to Jisung’s and thanked Chan about eighty times during the duration of the ride. When the two of them got up to Jisung’s apartment (Changbin was never going to get used to just walking in) the strands of Christmas lights reminded Changbin of his earlier question.

‘Do pixies exist?’ _Beautiful tact. You could win awards with that shit._

‘In a sense? Fae exist and are a thing, but pixies are mainly what faeries have as familiars. Some have plant familiars or animal ones, but some have these little balls of light that follow them around and basically act as a wifi extender for their magic. Super annoying.’

‘So nothing like the tiny people with wings that live in a tree?’

Jisung looked both concerned and confused. ‘Who came up with that acid trip?’

‘You’ve never heard of Tinkerbell?’

‘She sounds hideous.’

‘You just crushed every little girl’s spirit.’

‘Good. While showering from my backbreaking dream shattering, you wanna raid the kitchen and make us both dinner?’

‘I knew there was an alternative motive.’

‘Maybe slightly.’

‘Go cleanse your soul from all the horrors and nightmares you’ve inflicted. I will scour your fridge.’

Jisung rolled his eyes, saluted, then disappeared down the hallway.

* * *

‘Hey Bin, remember that one time you promised to do me a favour?’

Changbin looked up at Jisung from where he was lounging on the couch, a book on the different types of roots that could be used in potions in his hands. ‘Vaguely? I’m scared to say yes.’ After dinner and a shower, he had found a pile of magic witchy books in the corner of Jisung’s junk room and had pilfered one to read. Potions were surprisingly complex yet fascinating.

‘It’s nothing bad. I just need some help gathering potion ingredients for your identifier potion.’

Changbin scrunched up his face. ‘It sounds illegal when you call it that.’

Jisung laughed at the face he made. ‘It’s nothing bad, I swear. But I finally found a place where some of the fresh ingredients grow and need some help getting there and packing them all out.’

‘Packing them out?’

‘Yeah, the plants I need are halfway up a mountain trail, and there's a cave that should be pretty promising. If I just resource mine the whole trail up, I won't be able to carry everything back.’

‘Sounds like a lot of work. When were you planning on going?’

‘Tomorrow.’

‘Ugh, Sungie why. Isn't tomorrow a school day?'

'Oh yeah. But since when did we care about school?' 

'Fine. What are we looking for?’

‘A few things actually, but there’s a plant called sunveil. It’s hard to find because it only breaks the surface at sunrise and sunset, so we gotta get there in time.’

‘That’s disgusting. If you expect me to wake up at two am to go hike up a mountain to get a fucking flower at sunrise-’

‘I was thinking more sunset, dumbass.’

‘Thank god, but I don’t want to either way.’

‘Perfect, field trip! How do you want to get there?’

‘Where is there?’

‘Jirisan.’

‘Jirisan. As in the tallest mountain within continental South Korea? That Jirisan?’

‘Yeah, I don't think there's more than one.’

‘You do realize that it's all the way down in Jeolla, right?’

‘And that's why I asked how you wanted to get there. We can either try chancing my awesome, slightly defective mirror portal, or we can just drive or take the train.’

‘I think I trust a train a lot more than I trust your defective mirror.’

Jisung looked like he wanted to argue with that point but then resorted to pouting. Which was _not cute in the slightest_. Not at all, nope. Changbin wanted to poke his cheeks back in.

‘Can you drive?’

‘Actually, or legally?’

‘Uh, both?’

‘I can drive, but my licence might be expired.’

‘Well, that’ll be fine as long as we don't get pulled over, right?’

_‘Jisung-’_

* * *

_Jisung’s super descriptive notes on magical girls!_

_Difference between mages and witches:_

_At its basics -_

_Witches are generalized energy wielders_

_Mages are specialized energy wielders (it's literally avatar, i can't think of a better way to put it)_

_I can make potions_

_Chan hyung can’t_

_So chan hyung’s a mage because he specializes in frozen water (apparently ice aint a thing? It's like avatar, only one of the four main elements are ‘kosher’) earth, fire air, water...long ago_

_I don't get it, people need to lay the fuck off him_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually got into stray kids bc I found 3racha on Soundcloud lololololololol


	8. Big Rock Fork Me Mountain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahaHA :D

Normally, Changbin liked working out. It gave him time to clear his head and not think about anything while he mindlessly blasted music and sweat out his worries. A good sweat equalled a good workout. 

But this just sucked. 

_Think of it as exercise,_ Jisung had said _. It won’t be any different from working out in a gym._

 _It won’t be different MY ASS_. In a gym, you sweat because you’re working hard. On a mountain, you sweat because you're caught in a never-ending field of fucking humid-ass fog along with the constant changing in altitude. Being able to breathe was nice, but the elevation and its thin air had other ideas. 

‘I think it's somewhere around here?’

‘Gee, I would fucking hope so. This is, by far, the worst hiking trip I’ve ever gone on.’

‘Aw, common Binnie. Of course, it’s one of the best because it's with me!’

‘Ha, debatable. All the other hiking trips I’ve been on haven't forced me to climb trees just because they like the view they get.’

‘You think I made you climb that tree to look at your flat ass?’

‘Excuse you, my ass is not flat! It’s- it’s- defined?’

‘I clearly made you climb it so I could see your biceps at work, a much more defined part of you than your sad beanpole ass.’

‘Oh, fuck off.’ Changbin shoved Jisung into a tree. ‘It’s not like you have anything to brag home about either.’

‘Ah, Bin! Over here. I think what we want is around- woah _fuck-_ ’

‘You good, bro?’ 

‘Help?’

‘The fuck did you do now?’ 

Jisung, in all his glory, had managed to step too close to the ledge and nearly slid off the side of the cliff they were slowly scaling. Thankfully, there was a slight ledge of rock that jutted out underneath the ground that hadn't given way to Jisung’s foot. The witch was barely hanging on to a root that stuck out in the freshly unearth dirt, with one foot still on the path.

Changbin slowly inched his way to Jisung, not wanting to make anything worse. ‘Are you able to give me a hand?’

‘Uhhhh, I don't really wanna let go.’

‘You’re not gonna make this any easier for me, are you? Aite, let’s do this. Don't move.’

‘You think I’d move if I could? I feel like if I breathe in too hard I’d- _whaaa-’_

Despite Jisung’s complaining, he did look like he was about to go careening off the side of the cliff if he so much as flinched. The earth between him and the root he was holding on to dear life for was slowly crumbling away and the foot that was still on the path was slowly slipping. So, Changbin did the one thing that seemed like it would work, grabbing Jisung around the waist and slinging him over his shoulder in a fireman's carry while backing away from the quickly crumbling cliffside. There was a high pitched squeaking noise that may have been Jisung or a trampled mouse, but he chose to ignore it instead.

Once the two of them were a safe distance from any imminent danger, Changbin sat Jisung down on a misshapen rock. Should he dwell on the fact that Jisung had nearly fallen to his death?

Nah.

They both stared at the mini landslide they had caused before Changbin spoke up again. ‘You were saying?’

Jisung shook his head, thought elsewhere. ‘What?’

‘You were saying something before you nearly decided you wanted to learn how to fly.’

'I- Oh, right. What we're looking for, it should be around here somewhere. Check on top of those rocks, I’ll check in the cave.’

‘Right. What are we looking for again?’

‘Pink bell-shaped flowers or yellow star ones. Oh, or orange vines. If anything looks like that, grab it and shove it in the bag. I’ll go through it all when we get back. I’m sure even if it’s not exactly what we want, I’ll find a use for it.’

‘Great.’ Changbin walked around the rock structure Jisung just disappeared into, and after a bit of trial and error (he fell on his ass...twice), he made it up the side of the rock. There was more to the top of the cave than he initially thought. There was a small plateau, another step up, and a small meadow on top of the cave. Pink bells or yellow stars. Nothing looked exactly like that, so Changbin just decided to pick a bit of everything and hope it could be used. He spent the next hour peacefully gathering flowers, an activity that was more relaxing than he originally thought it would have been. Why had daisy-picker considered such an insult?

‘Ow, shit.’

‘Yo, Ji, you good?’ Changbin called down from where he was gathering foliage on top of the rocks.

‘Yeah. Ye-fuck- I slipped into a bush. OW! Motherf- a thorn bush.’

‘Wait, stay there. Don’t try to pull out from it, it will only hurt worse. Let me help.’ Changbin dropped the flowers he had gathered on top of his crumpled backpack and slid down the rock, scraping the side of his leg in the meantime. It wasn't life-threatening, but it was going to sting like a bitch later when it scabbed up. 

‘No, really Bin. I’m- shit!’ Changbin got there in time to see Jisung try to pull his leg from its snare, only to trip back over a rock and fall. 

‘Chill. Stop moving, you're only gonna make it worse.’ He managed to fit in the tight space where Jisung’s leg and the bush were wedged and push back the majority of the semi-dead vegetation. ‘Try pulling your leg back slowly now. Before you stand up!’

Jisung tried to stand up and crawl out of the bush at the same time, and only ended up snagging his foot and tripping again. 

‘Again, and slowly this time.’

This time Jisung listened, and fully pulled away from the... burnt tumbleweed? A burnt bush had never looked so sinister. before standing up and jumping away from the cave entrance. 

‘I’m free! Thank you, Binnie!’ Jisung glomped the shorter man in a hug as soon as he was clear of the rocks and plants.

‘Seriously. How have you lived this long without Felix or Seungmin killing you?’

‘Excuse you, Felix loves me and would die for me.’

‘And the rest of them?’

‘Should count their blessing for having a fabulous person such as myself in their lives?’

Changbin rolled his eyes. ‘I’m almost done gathering the moon-whatever-you-called-it. Did you at least get the drops-thing you were after?’

‘Perola drops! And yes, I did.’ He held up a crushed pink flower in his hand.

‘Wonderful. So was almost being eaten alive by a tumbleweed worth it?’

‘Tumbleweed?’

‘The plant. That- know what, never mind. I’ve learned more about green things today than I’ve (did in nutrition) ever wanted to. I’m gonna grab my bag and then we should go. It’s getting dark.’

Jisung saluted. ‘I shall be here. Sitting.’

It didn't take that long to scale back up the rock, stuff the dying plants into his bag and get back to where Jisung was, but Jisung wasn’t sitting like he claimed he would be. He was laying down in an awkward position like he fell off and never bothered to get back up.

‘Hey, Ji.’ Changbin nudged his leg with his foot and got a hiss in response. ‘Fuck, sorry, you're probably scratched up. You good down there?’

Jisung groaned, ‘I don't know what the fuck I did, but my leg’s starting to burn.’

Changbin crouched down and tried to inspect Jisung’s injured leg, but when he tried lifting his pant leg, Jisung flinched away from him and yelled for him not to touch it.

‘Ok, uhhhh, think you can walk?’

‘Pfft, what do you take me for? Hyunjin? I can make it all-’ As soon as Jisung tried to put pressure on his injured leg, it gave out beneath him and would have face-planted into the dirt if Changbin hadn't caught him. 

‘Alright, new plan. You carry all the bags, and I’ll carry you.’ Jisung started to protest, so Changbin quickly shut him down. ‘Ji, you’re injured. It could be bad, you don’t know. It doesn't help that we're in the middle of nowhere. Let’s get back to your apartment, then you can worry about being tough.’

‘Ugh, fine. Why do you have to be reasonable? You're starting to sound like Seungmin.’

‘Don't insult me while I’m busting my ass to carry you down a hill. I might just drop you.’

Jisung gasped dramatically. ‘You wouldn’t dare!’

‘Don't try me. I _will_ see how fast I can get your ass to roll down the hill.’

Halfway back down the mountain, Jisung knocked out on Changbin’s back, face almost unbearably warm against his neck. ‘Ji? Hey, Ji? You with me.’

He didn't get a response.

‘Ugh, great. Now is the worst time you could have possibly developed a fever, jackass.’ But there was no malice behind his comment. There was a nagging in the back of his head that told him something was very wrong, but as much as he wanted to actually listen to his instincts, as much as he wanted to drop everything (his arms were starting to get sore) and deal with the problem now, he had to wait. Hopefully, life would wait for him to get back into civilization before crumbling. But since when has luck ever been on his side?

* * *

It’s ok, calm down, remember your first aid training.

HE NEVER RECEIVED ANY FIRST AID TRAINING.

What would Chan do? What would Jisung do? Crack a joke and then fix everything with their magical energy bending? Probably. 

Jisung had passed out halfway down the mountain and stayed knocked out for the duration of the ride home. Chngbin had never been so thankful that they didn't take Jisung’s magical mirror for a ride, because they would have been stuck in South Jeolla with no way back and indefinitely screwed. Bless Chan and his motorized vehicle. Bless Chan and his willingness to let an expired-licensed driver drive it. Bless Chan and his nice arms-

Chan.

He should call Chan. No, he should not call Chan. Changbin didn’t want to die just yet. Who else was there to call...ok, there was quite the list. Who else...Minho was a definite no seeing as he didn't even have the cat man's number. Hyunjin? Would he be able to do anything other than stress Changbin out? Well, he might help calm him down, but that was the last thing he needed at the moment. He could take being highly stressed if it meant Jisung was getting the medical attention he needed.

He really didn’t want to call Felix about his best friend being possibly killed by someone he didn't like very much. But Changbin was running out of options, and Jisung’s breathing had started to get choppy. 

He found Felix’s number and stared at it before he let out a breath and finally hit the call button.

_‘Whassup, bitch?’_

‘Hey, Felix? Are, uh, are you free right now?’

_‘Mmm, it depends on what you need me for.’_

Changbin lets out an angry sigh. ‘Look, I don't you don't like me very much, but this is about Jisung. We went hiking for potion ingredients, and he fell into an angry plant-’

 _‘Did he get all scratched up?’_ Felix asked, sounding slightly irritated. _‘Because anytime that man gets even the slightest of scratches, he complains for a week straight until no one can stand him. If you want him to shut up, just kiss him-’_

‘What?! No! It’s- he- yeah, he got injured, but half his leg is black and he passed out. And I tried taking his temperature but I think he melted the thermometer. I’m not sure what to do.’

_‘IM CHANGBIN WHAT WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SOMETHING SOONER?’_

‘I fucking tried! But you didn't-‘

_‘Ugh, just, not now! I’m coming over with Seungmin, leave the door unlocked. Keep his head elevated, and try to see if you can give him water. I swear to everything that motherfucking breaths Im Changbin-’_

‘Yeah, I know. I know. Just- get here. Hurry, please.’ He heard the dial tone to indicate that Felix hung up. The star was probably running around, trying to convince Seungmin to take him to Jisung’s as fast as he could sit up. Changbin sniffled. ‘You're not the only one losing a friend.’

By the time Felix and Seungmin got there, Changbin was about ready to break down. The black is Jisung’s leg had only spread further, and the only thing he could get into his mouth successfully was ice chips.

‘Alright, where the dramatic son of a-‘

Seungmin came up behind Felix and smacked him, furiously whispering something to him that Changbin didn’t care to catch.

‘Ugh fine, what happened?’

‘We went potion-plant gathering, and Jisung got scratched by something. But on the way back, he fell asleep and hasn’t woken up since. And- and where he was scratched there's this weird black stuff. I thought it was dirt but then it started spreading, and it wouldn’t wash off, and- I don’t know what to do! His breathing has been getting more shallow, and now it's starting to slow down and sound raspy- and, I just...help.’ 

Felix lit up his hand and placed it on Jisung’s infected leg. ‘Shit. What he ran into was a cursed bush. I see that question, Bean, I’ll answer it later. The dumbass was stupid enough to not notice and let it break skin, which injected the curse into him. Since he’s been active, it’s only spread. Usually, Jisung is the one to heal these types of things whenever they happen to us, but- Seungmin! Help me with ideas.’

‘I could try telling the infection to go away? While you do your star thing?’

‘You!’ Felix pointed to Changbin. 

Changbin feared for his life at that moment, and he was right to.

‘You said you have anti-magic cells in you, right?’

‘Uhh- I- yes?’

‘Great. Strip.’

‘I- what- wha- who- no- I don't- NO!’

Felix raised an eyebrow. ‘You want to help Ji, don't you? Shirt off. Take Jisung’s off too.’

‘And that helps...how?!’

Felix scoffed. ‘Just shut up and do as I say.’

Changbin was still hesitant, but another sharp look from Felix was all it took to have him peel off his sweat-matted hoodie. He had Jisung’s sweater halfway off (who wears a sweater to go hiking in?) when Seungmin stepped back into the room and asked for a vial of his saliva.

‘Will that really help anything?’

‘Honestly, we’re at as much of a loss as you are. So we're experimenting. Can we get a vial of your blood too?’

‘But why tho?’

Seungmin shrugged, ‘Something about you is anti-magical-energy. Hopefully, we can use that against Jisung’s...whatever he fell into.’

Changbin sighed but ended up giving Seungmin a vial of both his spit and blood.

‘Thank you! Now just, _sleep_.’

Maybe the command was stronger than usual, or maybe Changbin was unknowingly exhausted and Jisung’s semi-bare chest was warm, but within a few seconds of Seungmin telling Changbin to sleep, the shorter found himself drifting off. 

* * *

‘Are you sure we don't wanna call Chan? Or Innie?’

‘No! No, we don't need to. They’ll freak out, and we don't need that. We can take care of this.’

‘Felix, I am freaking out! This is a big thing that could _kill_ Jisung if we don't deal with it now.’

‘I know, I know! Just...let me think.’

Seungmin sighed. ‘This is not a good time to be a prideful, stubborn asshole. I got the vials.’

Felix looked up, ‘Both of them? He agreed?’

‘He questioned the blood vial, but agreed when I told him it was for Sungie.’

‘Dang, that was easier than I thought it was gonna be.’

‘What do you really want them for?’ Seungmin held both the vials out of Felix’s range, which resulted in a glare from the shorter.

‘The saliva I thought could actually be useful. The blood, I just wanted to run tests on it. Ya know, to see-’

‘I’m going to stop you right there and not allow that. Not until Changbin says you can.’

‘Oh, common. Seungmin!’

‘No. That’s weird, man.’

‘Min, listen to me. Something isn't right about Changbin.’

‘What? What is so off-putting about him that you can't manage to see past it?’

Felix just shook his head. ‘That's the worst part. I don't know.’

‘You don't know? Are you being a jealous middle schooler that a new kid joined the group and is taking all your friends? Is that it?’

‘What the fuck, no!’

‘Then _what_ ‽ Sure, you can not like him, sure, you don't have to be his friend, but you’ve been nothing but a prick to the guy while he’s just trying to get through life. Changbin’s life has been rough, and sure, he’s not my favourite person either. But at least I’m not being a petulant jerk because he stole my friends.’

‘Minnie, please-’

‘I’m calling Chan hyung. _And_ Innie. Go stay with Jisung. Here.’ Seungmin tossed the vial of spit at Felix, who barely caught it. ‘But I’m keeping this one.’

Seungmin stepped into the living room and ground his palms into his eyes. This was a mess, everything was a mess. As much as he didn't want to, deep down, he held silent resentment towards Changbin. He knew the whole situation wasn’t his fault, if anything it was Jisung’s for being careless. But if, what if, someone else had gone with them? What if Chan hyung was there instead of Changbin, or what if Hyunjin had gone with them? Would they still be in this same mess where Jisung’s life was moribund?

‘Hey Innie, are you free right now?’ Before Seungmin could register what he was doing, he realized he had unconsciously called Jeongin. 

‘I think so? Lemme check, Hyung-!’ Jeongin had a shouting match with someone on the other side of the phone. ‘Seungie hyung said I’m free after I finish the dishes. What’s poppin?’

‘Your skull, if you ever say that again. Could you come over now, to Jisung’s? We have a bit of a medical emergency with Jisung; Felix and I can't figure it out. I’m calling Chan hyung too, after this.’

‘Oh, shit-’

‘Don't swear!’

‘-is it serious?’

 _Don't downplay stuff, Seungmin. This may be Jeongin, but he’s actually, like, eighty_. ‘Yeah, yeah it’s bad.’

‘I’ll speed run the dishes and teleport over there!’ Jeongin ended the call before Seungmin could say anything else to him. As much as Seungmin wanted to tell Jeongin to disregard the dishes, he knew the gumiho’s older brother was scary when he wanted to be. Despite Seungho’s appearance that stayed within his mid-thirties, the man was actually somewhere around nine-hundred years old, and insanely powerful. Seungmin had only met the man once and was instantly terrified by the powerful aura he gave off. 

Jeongin himself was actually in his late eighties, but apparently, gumiho’s aged differently, at least, according to Jisung. According to Hyunjin, they ate the souls of young virgins to maintain their youthful looks. 

But then again, it was Hyunjin, so, like most things he normally said, it was disregarded. 

Seungmin dialled Chan next, but it went to his voicemail, which wasn't set up. Maybe assuming a semi-functioning adult with an actual job would have their voicemail working was too much, so instead, he sent him a text. 

**Sirena - > Elsa’s long lost brother**

Sirena: hyung please call me back when you see this

jisung was dumb aagain and may or may not be in a life threatening condition 

aha

As soon as he hit send on the last message to the blond, a faint _pop_ noise and a Jeongin with his fox ears out appeared in the living room. Right, the not-really-a-kid could teleport.

‘Where’s Jisung?’ Even Jeongin’s eyes were out, bright orange and vertically slit.

‘His room.’ Jeongin made a beeline for Jisung’s room. When they opened the door, they saw a watery-eyed Felix brightly lit up.

‘It’s not working!’ He sniffled.

‘Lixie hyung, hey. What happened?’ Jeongin asked, kneeling next to Felix. 

‘Changbin and Jisung went up to go look for plants, and Jisung ran into a cursed whatever on the way back. It spread to the point where he passed out, and a good amount of curse is in his leg. I can’t- I can’t do anything about it! It’s not working, and it- it’s not-’

‘Felix, Lix, calm down. We’ll get it figured out.’ Seungmin said, trying to calm the star down.

‘Let me see if I can do anything.’

* * *

_Handy potion recipes that ur dumb ass should memorize:_

_Pg. III_

_~ Species potion that's a pain in the ass to make ~_

_Ingredients:_

_.4 oz Sage_ _  
_ _1/2 cup elderberry_ _  
_ _Handful of Nettles_ _  
_ _Bags worth - sunflower seed shells_ _  
_ _tree bark - uhhh yes eyeball this_ _  
_ _7oz - patchouli_ _  
_ _12 - perola drops_ _  
_ _5/6 - Sunveil_ _  
_ _1 - spine of a three eyed frog_ _  
_ _Beaker of Jasmine extract_ _  
_ _Lime’s worth of Orange extract_ _  
_ _1 whole ass Dragon fruit_

_Directions:_

_Add to the pot (who tf uses cauldrons anymore?):_

_Frog spine_

_1/2 of Tree bark_

_Patchouli_

_Orange extract_

_nettle_

_Boil until basically mush_

_Let simmer for like 12 days over magic fire (this way ur dumbass won't burn the pot)_

_New moon has to happen between day 3 and 14 of boiling_

_After the new moon add chopped sunveil_

_Stir CLOCKWISE - THATS TO THE LEFT - forever (like ten minutes)_

_It should turn green_

_If not ... FUCK_

_Add strained pulverized dragon fruit_

_Sunflower shells_

_Four days after it turns green_

_Use a wooden spoon to roughly stir in then add perola drops - metal will corrode and dissolve into the mixture and then ur ass has to start ALL OVER WOO_

_Make smooth (either blend or stare at until smooth)_

_Ten Literal days later_

_Add sage_

_Juiced elderberry_

_Jasmin extract_

_Mix with last half of tree bark, it should melt in_

_Immediately freeze after bark is melted_

_DO MAGIC SHIT TO POT OR IT WILL EXPLODE IN FREEZER - and that's a bitch to clean_

_Take out of the freezer 60 hours later_

_Should be a light pink and smell like roses and taste like ass_

_Put in beaker / anything clear and have someone add DNA to it_

* * *

Jisung groaned. Waking up sore all over was not ideal, and everything was- wet? Oh god, did he fall off the mountainside, or fall asleep in a creek? It would be embarrassing, but not the first time it happened. Why was it so dark out? Wait- where even was he? If he did fall asleep in the mountains, there would at least be the moon or the stars or some sort of _noise_. It was pitch black and dead silent and wet and Jisug was getting scared and-

‘Bin?’ Was that Changbin? What was here doing here? Where even was here? ‘Changbin, what's going on?’ He tried to keep the fear out of his voice, but it was still present. 

Jisung started to make his way over through the shallow water, but Changbin turned towards him and held out a hand. ‘The darkness.’ His voice was much deeper and echo-y than usual. 

‘Yeah, it’s dark here. Do you know where we are? Did I actually fall off that cliff?’

‘It’s here.’

‘What’s here?’

‘The darkness. It’s here.’

Jisung wanted to punch Changbin for being cryptic, but he knew it would do neither of them any good. Maybe if he could light something up, he could be able to see what was-

‘No.’ _That_ was what was wrong, the missing piece. His magic, the constant buzzing under his skin, the energy in his veins, the very matter that made up his being was just...gone, not there anymore. The harder Jisung tried to reach for energy, deep within himself, around him, even from Changbin, he felt nothing. He started to panic, because what was he without his energy?

He hated it. Not being able to use his energy left him defenceless. He knew he relied on it almost too much at times, but without his energy, he felt useless. He balled his hands into fists. Energy or not, he was not going to allow himself to be a burden. He could pull his weight, energy or not, and Changbin-

Jisung startled. When did Changbin get so close to him? How could he even see the other when it was pitch black out?

The shorter grabbed him by the chin and examed his face. ‘The darkness hinders you.’

Now he really wanted to punch the shorter human, as well as let loose on the cryptic remarks growing in his head. But as he opened his mouth to let the first one fly, Changbin deadass sunk his hand into Jisung’s chest. It was such a casual gesture from the other, almost as if he had stuck his hand out for a hi-five. Jisung really hoped this wasn't a regular occurrence Bin did frequently. _Well, it would explain the hard time he had making friends-_ The weirdest part was that it felt like nothing, almost as if Jisung was a ghost. Just to test it out, he tried to stick a hand through his forehead, but only ended up slapping himself. _So much for that._

‘Maybe buy me dinner first before you go after my heart?’

‘I will free you from it.’ 

‘What? I quite need my internal organs, thank you very _MUCH-’_

Jisung cut off in a squeak. Changbin...he was doing something. Jisung’s chest had lit up the same rich blue of his energy, except it was broken up with lines of black. The arm sunk deeper into the witch’s being and more of him lit up until Changbin was up to his shoulder in Jisung’s sternum and the younger was starting to wonder if this was what it was like to be Felix.

‘Shouldn’t your arm be coming out the other side of me by now? How does this work?’

‘ _F o u n d y o u.’_ Changbin’s eyes took on a white glow as he started to pull.

It felt like nothing at first, then a good kind of hurt, like pulling a thorn out your arm. But then the spot where Changbin sunk his arm in started to burn. 

‘Uh, Bin? Could you hurry it up? It’s starting to hurt.’ But the human just remained silent, not looking like he had even heard the request. Jisung didn't think the other had even blinked since he had sunk his arm into his sternum. ‘Ow, Bin- _ah_ fuck. Bin!’

A spike of white-hot heat shot all the way down to his left ankle, making him collapse onto his knees in the shallow water.

If having Changbin stick his arm in hurt, having him pull his arm out _burned_ _._ His while figure convulsed, trying to pull away from the pain, trying to curl into himself, but Bin wouldn't let him. His other arm went to Jisung's shoulder to hold him in place, and it took everything Jisung has not to scream. Whatever the shorter was doing...yikes. It felt like something was being pulled out of him. Something that had latched on, and didn't want to let go.

His arm was almost out, almost there. But it hurt, so fucking much. Nothing had ever burned as much as whatever was happening right now, not going over his energy capita, not sprinting that five-k, even though literally everyone has told him not to. His vision started to double and grow fuzzy. Maybe passing out would be a blessing in disguise. 

But then it was over. Changbin’s hand was out and...what the fuck was that?

The human was holding a long black rope that was writhing as if it was alive, like a snake. Jisung wasn't sure what Changbin was going to do with it. Throw it? Drop it? Make a pretzel knot out of it? Make a noose out of it?

No, of course not. Those would make too much sense. The last thing he expected was for Changbin to fucking eat the dark writing rope he had pulled out of Jisung, but the bitch slurped it up like it was ramen noodles.

Now, Jisung wasn’t sure if he should be weirded out, disgusted, or impressed. But Jisung’s blue glow was back. His energy was back, he could feel the thrum of magic right under his skin again and the black entity that had laced his silhouette before was gone.

Was that what Bin had pulled out of him? What was that black stuff? Why did it hinder his energy? What did Changbin just fucking _eat_? 

Why was Changbin looking at him like he was next on the menu?

‘Delicious.’ The human's eyes were still white and his voice was still deep and reverb-y and wrong. Was this even really even Changbin? ‘But now I want more.’

Jisung started to slowly back away. ‘Uhh, fuck, please no. I don't want your hand in me ag-umf-’

And now Changbin was trying to eat his face. Damn, his lips were gonna be bruised tomorrow. Jisung was too startled by the sudden shift in actions to comprehend what was happening. Did- did this mean anything? Had Jisung been sending out signals? Had Bin been sending out signs and he just got tired of waiting to reciprocate? What if-

Changbin threaded a hand through his hair and bit down on his bottom lip, and all thoughts left his head. He groaned, opening his mouth and arching into the shorter. And while he wasn’t exactly reciprocating, he wasn’t rejecting the gesture either. He just let himself be pliant in the others touch, and finally let his eyes slip closed.

Changbin shoved his tongue in Jisung's mouth and moved one of his hands to pull his waist closer. Changbin drew back, taking in the sight of a wrecked Jisung. ‘Devine.’ His eyes were brightly glowing white. ( _If you were a taxi, I'd ride you first-_ )

‘Binnie-‘

Changbin didn’t give Jisung a chance to say anything else, his mouth attacking Jisung's. 

_Maybe he does like me back-_

_Wait....back? The fuck is this brain? You're supposed to be the smart one here._

_I like Changbin? Short, emo, stupid, always angry Changbin? I- omyfuck- I like Changbin. I like Im Changbin. Fuck._

_Breathing can wait._

Jisung got so caught up in his newfound revelation, so caught up in the feeling of Changbin’s lips on his, so caught up in the sweet sweet feeling of Changbin's tongue down his throat, so caught up in returning the favour, that he didn’t notice his own blue glow diminishing.


	9. Deep fried and freeze dried

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since this story has started to go down some roads I never anticipated it would, I’m upping the rating. I’m also trying my best to keep the tags updated 
> 
> anyways lol sorry this chapter is more boring than the others

Jisung startled awake only to knock his forehead into something. He shut his eyes and groaned. He already hurt all over, especially the side of his calf, why did it _burn_? He did not need a headache on top of his already present pain. His side was cold, but his chest and nose were very warm. Why-

 _Oh._ That- that would explain a few things.

His sweater was hiked up to his chin and bunched around his neck, his left arm completely free of clothing. On top of his chest was a conked out Changbin, ( _WHY THE ACTUAL FUCK WASN’T HE WEARING A SHIRT? SINCE WHEN THE FUCK DID HE HAVE SUCH NICE ARMS-_ ) with one hand bunching up the right side of his sweater.

What- wha- WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK HAPPENED TO LAND THEM HERE? Why did Jisung have such a weird feeling? Half of it was fuzzy unexplainable euphoria while the other was bottomless un-pinpointed dread. As much as he wanted to just let the other sleep, Jisung really had to pee, and Changbin had started drooling a little close to his left nipple for him to be comfortable.

Jisung heard banging that was probably coming from the living room, a loud voice that sounded like Chan, and a sharp _shh. Footsteps were coming_ down the hallway, and Jisung panicked and laid back down. He turned his face away from the door (Changbin’s face was _right there hhhhhhhhhh_ ) and closed his eyes while he tried to fake being asleep.

‘What the fuck happened?’ That was Chan. His voice sounded frantic and slightly out of breath. ‘I just saw the messages from Seungmin. The brat just said Jisung was stupid and is in a life-threatening condition.’

‘Shh. They're still asleep.’ Jeongin? ‘Seungmin tried to call you, but you never pick up your phone when your grinding in the studio.’

‘So what exactly happened?’

‘They went to Jirisan to gather potion ingredients, and Jisung got scratched up by something cursed, but didn't notice.’

 _Ah, that would explain the weird dream._ Getting cursed was never fun. It messed with many things that shouldn't be touched, one’s psyche, a person’s energy, feelings or thoughts they had buried deep down they never wanted to surface. Curses worked in a way where they turned a person against themselves. It was all illusion, all perception, but paranoia and stubbornness go a long way.

‘He _what_?’

‘He’s better now, you don't have to worry about that. He’ll probably be low energy and grouchy for a few days, but anyone would if they basically had their energy drained from them.’

‘You realize this doesn't make me feel any better.’

‘Chill out, Chan.’

So Jeongin didn't use honorifics when he was Chan. Jisung thought he had misheard Jeongin speak one time, but, technically, the gumiho was older than all of them. Jisung repressed a shutter. Using honorifics with Jeongin would be so weird. The kid...not-really-a-kid, he was so good at acting a certain age. Granted, he probably had sixty years worth of practice at being eighteen, but it was just so...uncanny sometimes.

‘Ji nearly died. Don't tell me to _chill out._ ’ Damn, Chan must be pissed. The air was getting colder, and something cracked on the other side of the room. Chan rarely ever got mad, but when he did, it was the scariest shit Jisung had ever witnessed. Chan was the passive mad type of person. So when he got super pissed off, he exploded, usually in mini blizzards and fits of cold that would ice everything over.

‘Everything is done. The worst has passed over. Either calm down or leave. I have more to explain and if you won't listen to me-’

Chan let out a sign, and the room started to gradually get warmer. If Changbin wasn’t on top of him being a personal space heater, Jisung probably would have said something to stop Chan from making the room reach absolute zero.

‘Well?’ Chan and Innie were usually the two of the friend group that got along the best, what happened?

‘Felix called me panicking about everything. By the time I got here, Seungmin and Felix had somehow convinced the idiots to sleep like that, which probably saved Jisung’s life. If Changbin didn’t do...whatever the heck he did, whatever got into his leg would have spread throughout most of his system. Which brings up another point. The curse- it wasn’t natural. Sure, there are natural curses, but nothing completely natural would have been that strong.’

‘So, wait, hold up. You're saying you think someone intentionally planted- where did they go again?’

‘Jirisan.’

‘Intentionally planted deadly curses on Jirisan for- for why?’

‘I’m just as clueless as you are. My best guess would be it’s a popular resource gathering spot, but that would mean-’

‘Are they back?’

Jeongin paused, ‘I don't want to think they are, let’s save that for a worst-case scenario.’

‘So what did Bin do? About the curse thing?’

‘I’m not sure about that either, but he has to be more than an anti-magic human. No human, no matter how magic resistant they are, would be able to do anything about a curse as potent as the one Jisung had the misfortune to run into.’

‘What is he then?’

‘I don’t know. That's the most confusing part. He looks like a human, he feels like a human, he even smells like a human. I even confirmed it with Minho.’

Minho? Why would Jeongin need to confirm Changbin’s humanity with Minho? Also, what the fuck was going on with Bin?

Chan seemed just as confused, ‘Minho? Why Minho?’

‘Ah, never mind that. Cat senses. Just- Something doesn't add up about him, and it makes me uneasy.’

‘And you were planning on telling the others about this... when?’

‘Soon. I have a few things I wanna ask Seungie hyung about before I say anything, mostly so I don't freak anyone out needlessly with false information.’

Chan sighed and Jisung cursed his nasal cavities for inhaling too much dust. Damn, he needed to sneeze, but he didn't want to sneeze in Changbin’s face. Now would also be an awful time to reveal he was awake. Was it possible to sneeze yourself awake? Before he could actually come to a concluding thought, his respiratory system came to one for him, smashing heads with Changbin’s and sneezing all over his personal heater’s arm.

Thankfully, the heater was still dead to the world and, well, what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

Jisung tried to stretch in his confined state and let out an exasperated groan in a show of waking up.

‘Sungie? You awake?’ Like a switch, Chan’s voice went from harsh interrogation to soft concern. Wild.

‘Chan hyung? What-’ he cut off in a yawn, trying to play up the fact he just woke up. ‘What’s going on?’

‘How are you feeling, hyung?’ Oh, now the fox starts with the honorifics.

‘Everything hurts and I think my foot’s asleep. Why are you guys here?’

‘You passed out on the mountain on the way back from supplies gathering. Binnie hyung carried you back here. It looks like you ran into a cursed plant or something, which would explain why you’re sore.’ Jeongin supplied.

Jisung groaned again, but this time no exasperation was needed. ‘I feel like I’ve used all my energy reserves for the week at once. This is disgusting. I never wanna feel like this again. It’s like I’ve been out in the sun for too long and left in a freezer to be freeze-dried.’

Jeongin made a face, ‘That was oddly specific.’

‘All energy users feel about the same after they pass their energy quota for the day.’ Chan said. ‘It's like we’re a towel that's been wrung out too hard or a severe case of dehydration. Sungie probably used too much energy while trying to heal himself subconsciously.’

‘Ugh, this is actually awful. I feel like I have a head cold, but I know I don't. I’d be freezing if Changbitchass here wasn’t a personal sun. The dude’s probably radiating a thousand joules or something.’

‘I don't think that's how-’

‘Listen, do you really think I actually paid attention in any of my science classes?’

‘Of course, excuse me for having relative standards for you.’ Chan rolled his eyes.

‘But aside from the over energy exertion, do you feel ok?’ Jeongin asked, breaking the friendly banter.

‘I think so? I think after I eat something and walk around a bit and maybe sleep another day I’ll be just fine. If I really used as much energy as I feel like I did, I'll be out of commission for two or three more days before I feel like a normal bitch again.’

‘Lovely.’ Jeongin smiled drily.

‘But if I get Innie hugs, that recovery process might go faster.’

‘And unfortunately for you, this Innie has to run. I ran out of the house without telling Seungie hyung anything. So If I wanna live to see the next day, I gotta yeet.’

‘Innie noooo-’

‘Ugh, fine.’ The fox rolled his eyes but smiled as he let Jisung pull him down into an awkward hug. Jeongin pulled away, winked, and disappeared with a _pop_ and the faint smell of apple dish soap.

‘All jokes aside, you're really feeling ok?’ Chan asked, giving Jisung his skeptical dad eyes.

‘As of now, no. But just like I told Innie, I’m sure as the day progresses, I’ll feel better.’ Jisung started to shrug Changbin off of him so he could pull his sweater back on and finally pee (the kid fucking slept like the dead), but as soon as the older male was no longer touching him, pain started to build in his chest. Collapsing in front of Chan was indeed the best way to reassure the older he was fine.

‘Woah, Sungie. You should lay down again.’

‘Yeah, sure. I will after I pee. And maybe wash my face.’

‘Do you need help down the hall?’

‘Nah, it’s literally right there. I’ll make it.’ But even Jisung could hear the pain in his own voice. Why was everything hurting now? He was fine, maybe a little overheated and uncomfortable with a full bladder, but otherwise fine not even a minute ago. 

With each step he took, the pain seemed to grow at an alarmingly exponential rate, threatening to expand until it broke through his chest. He was barely able to complete his bathroom escapade before he collapsed face-first into the hallway. Ew, his carpet was gross, he should vacuum when he didn’t feel like actual death-

‘Ji-oh fuck. You’re going back to bed and not moving for the next week.’

As much as Jisung wanted to protest, he couldn’t find it within himself to do more than groan in protest. There were noises from his living room, but the pain made him too exhausted to care.

Chan deposited the witch back onto his bed and the still dead-to-the-world human wrapped himself back around him. Maybe it was because he was no longer trying to sit up or stand, but the excruciating pain that had been building in his chest was slowly starting to subside.

‘Ok, it hurts less now. You can stop being a helicopter parent.’

‘When does it hurt the most? And what hurts?’ Chan asked, worry lacing his tone.

‘It hurts whenever I’m not laying down. And there are this throbbing the builds around here-' Jisung put a hand to his chest.

‘Sungie- take your shirt off.’

‘That’s kind of hard when lying down.’

‘Bitch, don’t make me-'

‘Fine fine!’ Jisung pulled his shirt off after fighting to sit up with Changbin still laying half on top of him. 

‘Oh god.’ There was a blue and black bruise that spidered out from under where Changbin's hand was resting on Jisung's chest. ‘What the fuck?’ Jisung winced, pitching forward. Taking Changbin's hand off the bruise made it start to acutely ache, and then a sharp stab of pain radiated from the bruise.

‘Wait, grab Bin’s hand.’ As much as Jisung didn’t want to initiate anything with the older human, especially after his newfound _feelings, but at this point_ , he’d be willing to do almost anything to make the pain go away. But then again, the shorter was basically being a humanoid octopus, nearly strangling him in his sleep.

Taking hold of Changbin's hand made the throbbing go away, but the ache was still there. Someone (probably Chan) guided the human's hand back to the bruise, and Jisung let out a sigh of relief as the pain had been doused.

'I guess Binnie touching it makes it hurt less? Yeah, I'm fine now. Other than feeling like a rag that got all the water squeezed out of it.'

'That was an awful analogy. I didn't realize pain addled your brain.'

'I have functioning brain cells!'

‘You're fooling no one.’ Seungmin yawned from the doorway. ‘Morning, it’s...two pm.’

‘When did you get here?’

‘Last night. You got pretty fucked up, so Binnie hyung called Felix and me, and panicked about how he didn’t know what to do. So I told him to go to sleep, and then I called Innie and Channie hyung even more panicked because we didn’t know what to do.’

‘Urgh. How did I fuck up this bad? Like, I know it’s a given that in my case anything that nothing goes as I want it to, but still. This has to be a personal best.’

‘I think Jeonginnie had a thought about where to start looking for ideas on what happened to you. He said he didn’t want to scare anyone with overdramatic information, so he’ll get back to us when he figures something out.’

Jisung thought back to the half-conversation half-argument Chan and Jeongin had when they thought he was asleep. What was the older fox up to? He clearly either knew something, or had an idea of where to start looking, and if he wasn’t sharing it meant something was worse than it seemed. Which scared Jisung mire than the witch would like to let on

‘So...waffles?’

‘No, pancakes!’

‘Dear god, I’m not doing this again-'

* * *

_Energy transference and the basic properties of magical energy_

_Ok so like - magic n shit is actually just energy_

_Music has frequencies and so does magic_

_Frequency - number of times something occurs within a unit of time_

_for magic - frequencies are the number of times energy bounces off the surface in front of them a minute_

_IDK why this is such an inconsistent measurement - its like a car length_

_Most witch magic - 444 𝘲_

_Ooooooooooooo I can type fancy q’s_

𝓆 𝒬 𝖰 Ｑ ℺ Ɋ ɋ ʠ 

_Vampire curses - 444.7 Q_

_It's like their radio stations or some shit_

_because vamp curses and moral witch energy Is so close, witches are basically immune to vampire curses (which are actually fancy illusions - shhh don't tell anyone) and vampires are unaffected by witch magic_

_mages and warlocks are a different story but that another page of notes_

_Qkb - no idea what the fuck this thing stand for - all spells are measured in qkb or Q_

_Quirky kinetic buttons? <\- I know I'm close _

_My magic - 6.66 Hz (lol)_

_You (hi) han peter jisung (HURK mother why ) can easily exert 100,000-300,000 qkb a day - which is pretty legit - most witches max is 10,000_

_DON'T GO OVER_

_That can be bad and you can dissolve into nothingness (well, technically I’d come back from the void from whence I came, but that's another story)_

_If you need to perform a spell and don't have enough energy_

_Don't_

_The energy supplement potions aren't worth it - they're a pain to make and taste like ass_

_Or just ask chan hyung_

_Who seems to have an actual unlimited supply of energy_

_The guys amazing, I guess others are just actually jealous of his overachievement-ness_

_Energy credit / debt_

_Can bank / loan energy_

_is good for having to do a bunch of high energy tasks at once- like cleaning out the back room at someone's work 👀_

_It literally works like a credit card - you expend a bunch of energy att at once, and you don't face the consequences until the end of the day_

_can be really bad if you go over your max - can literally disintegrate into the energy circle of life and cease to exist_

_ok maybe its less dramatic, but going over is bad - your internals can be damaged to the point where they don't work anymore_

_meaning you can either die from organ failure or you'll never be able to wield energy again_

_FUN TIMES_

_Most mages and witches have colour to their magic_

_Me, blue_

_Chan hyung - light blue, almost white_

_I met a green mage once, she was aite_

_Magic and energy frequencies come from the colour of light that their magic is_

_Purple -_ sorry _\- ultraviolet mages can perform quicker and more powerful spells than red mages_

_Red mages better at detailed spells, defence spells, making soups, slow n steady type things._

_I think this is utter bs, and the colour comes from personality. Sure, the light thing has been scientifically proven and tested with like wave readers n shit, but red magic...sorry_

_ENERGY_

_Red energy is just as fast as blue energy_

_Red mages just like to have excuses for being lazy_

_Bitches. I have yet to meet a nice red witch, maybe that's why._

_But I guess going off of this - white light doesn't really have a frequency, at least not a visible one_

_Maybe that’s why Chan hyung is like the all-powerful second-to-god type?_

* * *

‘Hyung? You home?’ Jeongin called into the empty house. ‘Wonderful. Just when I need him- ugh.’

He flopped down on the worn couch. Should he call his brother? There was no guarantee the older man would pick up. The only reason Seungho had gotten a phone in the first place was to help blend in better with modern society better. But just because he had one, didn't mean he actually used it. The older fox forgot to charge it half the time, which also gave him an excuse to not have to look at it.

He could send a flame message, but it would be super inconvenient for the other, especially if he was in public or out running one of his super-secret-missions he told Jeongin nothing about.

Jeongin loved his older brother, he really did, but Seungho could be so _infuriating_ at times. _I’ll tell you when you're older, Innie, You don't need to know any of this little fox, it’s to keep you safe, Jeongin._ He was a grown-ass eighty-nine-year-old fully developed powerful gumiho. Whatever his brother dealt with on a day to day basis, he could clearly handle. He was the most powerful out of his group of misfit friends, could take anyone three times his size in a fight, and was confident that he could go head to head with a few full demons and come out relatively unscathed.

But no, of course not. He was a child to the world, and he needed to be protected, sheltered, censored. 

He hated it. Jeongin despised being physically stuck at eighteen. His teeth were still messed up, his skin was still garbage (but modern face wash was a godsend), he still had baby fat in his cheeks, and he was almost positive that he had a few more inches to grow. Seungho always reminded Jeongin that he didn't fully finish developing physically until he reached somewhere in his three-hundreds.

Jeongin would see it in Chan’s eyes every time he just called him Chan. It was so weird at first, adapting to the role of the youngest in the friend group despite being everything but.

His friends always forgot how old he really was. Whether it was the group of friends he currently had or older friends he’s had in the past, everyone always forgot how old he really was. It- it was rough. Jeongin didn’t enjoy flaunting his age, didn't want to constantly remind people of how much more versed he was, but it was always a thought that nagged in the back of his mind.

_You’re better than they are. You don't need them. They’ll just move on once they grow out of you, it’s happened every time, what to stop this group from being any different?_

He hated the thoughts, wanted to always push them out, but they always came back. Everyone in the friend group had a someone. Chan had Minho, Minho had Chan. The two of them have been dancing around one another for so long, anyone could see they mean the world to one another. Hyunjin had a mini harem going on with Seungmin and Felix, whether he realized it or not, both males practically throwing themselves at the half-demon whenever he needed to feed. Even self-proclaimed forever-alone ecstatic-cat man Jisung now had Changbin.

Im Changbin. Jeongin wasn’t too sure how to feel about him. He came out of nowhere, barged his way into the friend group despite the cold welcoming he had gotten from half of them. Jeongin could read people’s auras easily. When he had first met Jisung and Chan, he had automatically known the two of them were gifted with boundless energy. He had known all about the secret Minho had tried so hard to hide, had automatically sensed Seungmin’s insecurities, had realized Felix, despite what the young man may believe, is much brighter than he will ever realize. But Changbin-

Jeongin couldn’t get a read on Changbin, and that fact threw him off. Normally, no read was a good thing. It meant the person was a human and they had nothing to hide. But after the cleansing stunt, he had pulled with Jisung, there was no way the guy was just a human. 

If he had only gotten to Jisung sooner, maybe Jeongin would have had a chance to get a sample of the curse to see where it had originated from. Nothing strong enough to knock out a witch as powerful as Jisung was natural. That shit had to be man-made. But who? Why? How? 

Jeongin really wanted Seungho to come home soon. His brother was amazingly knowledgeable in...in everything. But, that does happen when one reaches nearly a millennia of life.

 _They’ll always be there_ his brother would tell him, _the thoughts, it's all part of being a lone wolf...or, well, fox. Gumihos are creatures of solitary, seeking solace in isolation._

 _Why did you pick me up then?_ He would always ask back, but only to never receive an answer.

Magical foxes were made, created, not born, which was why there were so few of them in the world. When Jeongin manifested in the middle of a wasteland, he was so very confused, so very lost, and so very terrified. If Seungho hadn’t basically adopted him, he probably wouldn’t have survived very long on his own.

Being immortal sucked. There was the fact that he had to blend in with the century, keep up on all the trends and changes that were happening so he didn’t stick out too badly, the fact that literally everything aged and moved on at a normal pace, the fact that he had already seen friends grow old and die.

Being immortal sucked, but it did have its perks. He got to see how humans evolved, technology advanced, trends die and grow. It was fascinating from a slightly psychotic, timeless point of view. 

Like television. The contraption had started off so minimalistic, with just stand still pictures in black and white while someone narrated a story over it, to giant computers that were basically only a screen. 

Jeongin had pulled up some weird conspiracy documentary about how the government was actually spying on everyone through the use of social media to drown out any creeping existential thoughts and had gotten about halfway through it when he heard the front door open.

‘Hyung?’

‘Ah, Jeonginnie, I didn't think you would be back yet, seeing how eager you were to leave the other day.’

‘What? I finished the dishes!’

‘That you did. What’s the government doing with our information now?’ Seungho asked, fixating on the older lady who was exposing how Facebook actually worked and all the maleficent activity that transpired with a person's data when they clicked on an ad. 

Jeongin shut it off, not wanting a distraction. He didn't really pay attention anyway, who even used Facebook anymore? The platform was so 2013.

‘Do you have a minute?’

‘Perhaps.’

‘It's important.’

Seungho sighed, ‘Fine. Give this old fox a minute to change and we can talk over dinner.’

‘Was that a hint for me to order take out?’ Jeongin snorted.

‘It was a verbal cue for you to start cooking. Takeout isn't good for you, even if it is homemade.’

‘But cooking is so much _work._ ’

‘And so is dealing with your needy ass. Dinner won’t make itself.’

Jeongin ended up calling their favourite Japanese place down the road because their fridge was empty anyway, and his brother would actually have a fit if he had made the two of them instant noodles for dinner.

(‘Really Jeongin?’

‘What? It’s not like I could have actually made anything, the fridge was empty!’

‘Oh, so it’s my fault?’

‘Yes, yes it is. Go grocery shopping once in a while.’

‘You're not the one with a job-’

‘You're not the one who has school-’)

‘So? You wanted to ask me something.’

Jeongin looked up from his bento ‘Yeah.’

‘Well?’

‘Its- well- It’s a bit of a long story. Do you have time?’

‘Don't worry Innie, I’m taking the rest of the week off.’

All the visible tension left Jeongin’s shoulders. ‘Ok, ok. So I’ve told you about my friends right?’

‘I think so?’ Seungho paused, ‘Yedam and them, right?’

Something twanged in Jeongin’s chest. ‘Ah, no. Not them, they’re- they've moved on. My new group of friends, the ones from the high school I’m going to. Seungmin hyung and Jisungue hyung and them.’

‘Ah yes, them. I believe you have. I remember when you brought the demon boy-’

‘Yeah, those friends. So Jisungie hyung befriended a human-’

‘That always goes so well.’

‘But it ended up that the human was cursed by a vampire at one point in his life, and can see ghosts-’

‘Oh?’

‘-and is kinda immune to magic.’

Seungho gave the younger fox a quizzical look, ‘And you’re certain he’s human?’

Jeongin opened his mouth, then closed it. ‘No, I’m not. But if he isn't a human, I have no idea what else he could be.’

‘He could be a creature of deceit.’

‘I already thought about that, but- there would be more- more of something. I get absolutely nothing from this kid, no outstanding energy, barely any life force, no aura. Nothing! It’s been driving me crazy, especially after he somehow cured Jisung’s curse-’

‘What kind of curse? If he’s able to cure curses, that should narrow your options significantly.’

‘I didn’t get there in time to actually get any reads on it. But judging by the drastic state Jisungie hyung was in, and how fast it reacted, there’s no way the curse was natural.’

‘You think someone planted a manmade curse- wherever they went-’

‘Jirisan.’

‘Hmmm.’ The older narrowed his eyes into a pensive look, ‘It would make sense to plant them there, especially since it’s such a popular spot for Otherworlders. But it would mean bad things.’

‘Bad things?’

‘Later.’ Seungho waved it off. ‘Tell me more about this curse curing human.’

‘By the time I got to Jisung's apartment, Changbin hyung was laying on top of Jisungie hyung, and his leg that was all scratched up with the curse was healing. Felix hyung said that there was this black stuff in hyung’s system, but by the time I got there, it was gone from his leg. It looked like it was moving up towards his chest, but I made Felix hyung and Seungmin hyung leave the room because they were both nervous wrecks just waiting to break down. By the time I got back to the bedroom, the black had completely moved from Jisung’s leg. I’m not too sure where it went because I didn’t want to move either of them-'

‘No, that was a good call. It sounds like your human friend is actually something that he’s not aware of. Do you know how he grew up, or anything about his parents?’

‘I've heard him offhandedly mention his mother a few times, but other than that I know he lives alone.’

‘There are not many creatures who would be able to nullify curses of any strength, let alone strong ones so that drastically narrows down the options list, and human definitely isn’t among them.’

‘Could he be some sort of weird exotic species that are near extinction?’

‘I doubt that. All nearly extinct beings are documented and closely monitored whether they know it or not, like your star friend.’

‘Ah, yeah. I know he’s one of the few stars left after- after what happened.’

Seungho let out a sigh. ‘The decimations were tragic and could have been stopped much sooner if people didn’t see it as a political statement, which only makes the event even more saddening. But back to your mysterious friend, bring him over for dinner sometime soon so I can get a read on him.’

'Just Changbin?'

'Well, if others want to come, why not all of them?'

'Sounds like a disaster.'

'Hush, it sounds wonderful.'

Jeongin rolled his eyes. His brother was always trying to meet the new friend group he had stuck himself with, claiming it helped him keep up on the trends. If anything, he was more worried Hyunjin or Felix would say something wrong and offend his other brother, causing him to explode the whole residential block. Speaking of Felix-

‘You said the SPA had people keeping track of endangereds. But are the people following Felix really monitoring him? Or are they just- they seem weird. They put me off and I don't like them because they stick out and it's painfully obvious they're following him.’

‘Following? No one should be following him. The monitoring process is much more discreet than someone flat out following them. Either this person is not from the species protection act or they’re doing a very poor job.’

‘I thought the SPA’s motto was be discreet.’

‘It is.’

‘So the people following us are not SPA.’

‘Indubitably.’

‘You don’t think it’s the cult again trying to finish what they started, do you?’

‘I pray not. That would stir up more trouble than they are worth. Try to keep an eye on those following your friends, and see if you can get anything out of them. But be wary, Jeongin.’

‘Of course. I always am.’


	10. Coffee is not, and will never be, a soup Jisung

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ten chapters! Over 100 kudos! Over 1000 hits!!! Thank u guys for all the love this story has gotten! ! Srs broz, i luv u all u so much  
> sorry this chapter is so late lololololololol

‘The main set, or super-set, is comprised of all its subsets, and each object being its own subset non-withstanding, fulfills the sixth axiom of probability-'

Ugh, math was one of the few subjects that Changbin just couldn't wrap his head around. No matter how hard he tried, the number just didn't want to work with him. He knew that meant he should pay more attention than normal, but he couldn’t bring himself to.

So, like the studious high school her was, he pulled out his phone and opened one of the stupid games Jisung had downloaded on his phone. He hated it, yet he couldn’t stop playing it. Who even cared if the noodle made it into the cup? But it was a hell of a lot more interesting than whatever was going on-

Jeongin sent something in the obnoxious group chat that held all eight of them. Thankfully, Changbin had the foresight to put his phone on silent, but Felix wasn’t so lucky.

‘Lee Yongbok, phone.’ The teacher didn’t even turn around, but then again, not many other kids had Hyunjin screeching as a text tone.

At lunch, Felix hung back in the classroom to ask Jisung what the message had said.

‘I dunno, I didn't read it. The manhwa I was reading was way more interesting than anything Innie could possibly have to say right now.’

‘Bro, you're supposed to be paying attention in math class so I can steal your notes later.’

‘Uh-huh, just like how you let me read your English notes?’

‘I don’t take notes! I’m a native speaker!’

‘Mmm, tragic.’

‘Really?’ Changbin couldn’t help but ask. ‘But your Korean is-‘

‘Shut up, I hear enough junk about my accent as it is.’

‘No, you speak well. You don’t seem like a foreigner, just like someone’s who hasn’t been to the country in a few years.’

Felix just blinked at the other. ‘I’ll take that as a compliment, for now.’

Changbin’s phone buzzed again, and this time he took the opportunity to look at the screen because he didn't know what to say back to Felix. The star ignored the building awkwardness between them and shoved his face in the screen of Changbin’s phone so he could see what was happening in the group chat.

**☕ Is coffee a soup ☕** (8):

Innie ^.^: So i may have or haven't hacked the motion sensors and gotten information

Bang Chan hyung: What the fuck does that even mean?

JiJi: Teen titans  
Duh  
When robin does his lame fake ass tech shit and hacks the motion sensors?

Kim Seungmin:But its actually stupid because u can't hack motion sensors?  
But u can hack the system their attached to?

Bang Chan Hyung: Yeah i still don't get it

Leeeeeeno: Boomer

Bang Chan hyung: Alksdjhfwnre,mebrwqmneb,qnrb

Hwang Hyunjin:LMAO  
JEONGIN WAS THE ONE TO SAY IT  
CHANS THE ONE COMFISED  
I JUST GOT YELLED AT FOR LAUGHING AT THIS

Bang Chan hyung: Stop TESXING IN CLASS

Lee FElix: Tf is tes xting

Leeeeeeno: What chan and i do when no ones around

Jiji: Ya know  
No one asked

Innie ^.^: I want to  
UNSEE  
Anyways uneducated fiends  
I have info on spoopy shit and  
Meet after school

Jiji: AHAHAHAHAHAHA FELIX GOT CAUGHT

Hwang Hyunjin: LOL LIX JUST GOT HIS PHONE TAKENNNN

Im Changbin: Lol

Jiji: Damn binnie  
Didn't realize u were a rebel too  
Texting in class

Hwang Hyunjin: He put his phone away just as u sent that

Bang Chan hyung: PAY ATTENTION IN SCHOOL

Leeeeeeno: That way u don't have to become a crack dealer like me

Jiji: As many times as u make that joke  
I'm somewhat convinced that what u do for a living

Leeeeeeno: ;)  
Wanna meet at our apartment?  
I'm actuall cleaning it rn

Jiji: Wow  
Being the housewife uve always wanted to be

Leeeeeeno:Fuck off  
I don't wanna die of mold poisoning  
Unline SOMEONE

Hwang Hyunjin: One time  
One FUCKING TIME  
And it wasnNT ME

Innie ^.^: Sounds good

Jji: Wait does bin have work today ater school?

Hwang Hyunjin: Bro u ask ur the one sitting right next to him  
And no we don't have sc shih today

Kim Seungmin: Uhhh i might have some stuff to do but ill finish it fast n meet u after i'm dobe

Innie ^.^: Kkk

Jiji: Bro  
U were alive during the kkk times  
U of all peeps should know not to use ti os causally

Innie ^.^: Bitch that was in america  
I wasn't in america then  
So  
Kkkk

Kim Seungmin: This just in  
Jeongins a racist  
Confirmed

Innie ^.^: I suddenly know what seunfmin hyung has to do after school  
Fite me

Kim Seungmin: Sure bitch  
1v1 me final destination all starfox no items

Innie ^.^: Ur going down

Bang Chan hyung: W ha t tf did i just r e a d

Jiji: Easy solution hyung  
Forget how to read

Bang Chan hyung: Ur first mistake was saying i could ever  
Now i actually gotta get back to work if i wanna leave early  
And ALL OF YOUS  
STOP TEXTING IN SCHOOL  
Also jisungie stop putting your existential questions as the chat name  
It only makes me want to ignore them more

Jiji: BUT HYUNG ITS A LEGITIMANT QUESTON

Leeeeeeno: ur question sucks  
But no it is not  
Coffee is bean water  
Not bean soup  
And if u go to panera and ask for ur latte in a bread bowl they will excommunicate u from all the paneras around u

Jiji: damn hyung how do u see through me so well  
(⊙︿⊙✿)

[Jiji changed the chat name to “ **🧊 Is water lava 🔥** ”]

‘Technically I do work after school today, but I can just call in sick.’

That got Jisung to look up from his phone screen. ‘Are you ok with using your sick days like that?’

‘Yeah, I usually don't ever use them, so I should be fine. Let me message my manager now so he’s less mad when I actually don't show up.’

* * *

‘Changbin?’ Changbin looked up into the crowd. School had finally let out, and he was walking to Chan and Minho’s shared apartment that was deep somewhere in the city. (He was actually super grateful when Jisung and Hyunjin offered to walk with him because he had no idea where the two lived, and he didn't really wanna ask.) Who else knew his name other than the few people he interacted with in his class? ‘Yo, hey man! It’s good to see you again.’

When he spotted the speaker, he was met with a tall, blue-haired Choi Yeonjun, a kid who was part of his class at his old high school when the vampire incident happened. Yeonjun had even been a kid he considered his friend, and, just like the others, was one to pull away and avoid him after everything happened. But Yeonjun seemed to get the memo later than everyone else did. When his other friends had instantly avoided him due to the effects of the vampire curse, Yeonjun had still spoken to him like everything was normal, but then just stopped acknowledging his existence the next day. His other acquaintances ignoring him didn’t really hurt, but Yeonjun had been his closest friend back at his old high school, so when he just refused to associate with Changbin out of the blue one day, it had really stung.

‘Yeonjun. I didn’t- what are you doing here?’

‘Picking up my b- a friend. You’re still a student? I thought you graduated already?’

‘Technically I was supposed to, but there were complications. So I ended up repeating part of my junior year when I transferred here.’

‘Ah, that sucks.’

‘It’s not so bad, I guess.’ There was an air of awkwardness, as neither knew what else to say to the other.

Yeonjun started to say something, but was glomped by a taller high schooler, ‘Yeonjunnie hyung- oh, uh hi! Who are you?’

‘Soobin, this is Changbin. We used to go to the same high school, then he transferred here. You two are in the same grade, but he’s older than you.’

Ah, that's why the tree looked familiar. He had probably seen Soobin wandering the halls in between classes.

‘Binnieeeee-’ Wonderful, just what he needed. To get half tackled by a hyper Jisung with a Hyunjin and Felix to make fun of him. Oh lookie, a Seungmin was here too. Joy.

‘Hey, Soobin.’ Hyunjin waved.

‘You know him?’ Jisung asked.

‘Yeah, he’s part of the student council.’ Ah, that was why he looked familiar.

‘It was nice to see you again, but I gotta go. I promised my mum I’d run errands for her. Want my number so we can stay in contact?’

‘Is it the same as your old one? You know, the one you blocked me from?’

Yeonjun winced at the jab. ‘No, it’s not. That phone got obliterated because I sneezed while walking and dropped it. Unfortunately, my SIM card also died and I lost all my old contact information.’

‘How did you drop your phone that hard?’ Seungmin asked, an eyebrow raised.

‘Very carefully.’

‘I watched him do it.’ Sobin said. ‘Someone, uh, ran over it after he dropped it. With a mo-ped.’

‘Yeah, it was a sad day. But here.’ Yeonjun held out his phone to Changbin. ‘I have something I wanna talk to you about, but now clearly isn't a good time.’

What could Yeonjun possibly want to talk about? If it was to apologize for being a bad friend and ignoring him for months in high school, Changbin didn't really wanna hear it. Sure, he went through the stages of grief from losing a friend, and he was still low key scared Jisung would pull the same thing Yeonjun did to him. But he was over it, he was past it. Yeonjun was no longer in his life and he had completely forgotten about everything. Right?

‘What is there for us to discuss? You made it pretty clear you didn't want to associate with me.’

At least Yeonjun had the audacity to look sheepish at the accusation. ‘Ok, yeah, I was a jerk. But there was a reason? Granted, it may not be a very good one, but I do want a chance to explain myself.’

Changbin just stared at the phone that was still being held out to him. A part of him wanted to be petty. He wanted to be selfish and completely blow Yeonjun off, leaving the blue-haired male behind without any closure, cutting him out of his life completely. But the bigger, better part of him couldn't help but be curious what the other was referring to. Sure, he decided to play a one-sided game of keep-away with no explanation or seeming reason one day, and never looked back. But now, the very person in question was claiming he had a reason for his very actions. If he gave Yeonjun a chance, was he being a pushover? If he declined would he ever see his once-time-friend ever again? Was straight out declining too harsh?

‘What the fuck?’ Oh, right. Changbin had a small posse of friends on his side witnessing the whole exchange, and the situation seemed to sit well with none of them. But of all people, Changbin didn't expect Felix to get mad. ‘You just fucking, ghosted Bin? With no explanation? And now you want a chance to explain yourself, years later after you conveniently run into him while he’s with a group of friends who actually care?’

‘Um, yeah? As I said, I had a reason, and I didn't know I’d run into him here. I thought he moved to Daegu or something.’

‘Daegu? _Daegu?_ I’ll send you-’

‘Ok, thank you, Felix.’ Changbin slung an arm over Felix’s shoulder to reel him back. ‘We’ll be leaving first.’ He said to Yeonjun’s still extended hand, and then pulled a reluctant Felix with him out of the schoolyard and down the street until they were out of earshot.

When they turned the corner, Felix shoved Changbin’s arm off his shoulder. ‘What the fuck was that about? Why didn't you let me punch him?’

‘Felix-’

‘No. That was actual ass. What the fuck-’

‘Fe-’

‘Who does that asshole think he is! I swear I’ll-’

‘ _FELIX!_ ’ 

‘What?!’

‘Thank you.’

‘What?’ Instead of angry, the star now looked confused. 

‘Thanks for taking me away from the situation. If I stayed there longer, I probably would have said something I would regret, and the already fragile bond between us would be irreversibly damaged.’

‘With all due respect, _hyung,_ it sounds like he was the one to do the damage to any relationship you two had.’ 

‘So it takes making you angry to use honorifics?’

‘That’s not the point!’

Changbin couldn't help but smile. ‘It’s alright. It took a while, and it hurt a lot when Yeonjun started to avoid me, but I’m past it now.’

‘No, you're not.’

‘Bro, I just said-’

‘I heard what the fuck you just said, my ears work. You think you're over the whole thing, you feel like it doesn't affect you anymore because you're repressing the situation, acting like it never happened. Well, it happened, and now that relics from the past are being unearthed, you’re running away from them in the form of _I don't care._ Don't pull a me. Either deal with this situation right now or forever forget about him.’

‘You-’

Felix scowled at the ground and pushed past Changbin. ‘The others are waiting,’ He muttered, then stomped off.

_What was that about?_ Changbin caught Jisung hanging back from the rest of the group that had run off to catch up with Felix. ‘Is he gonna be ok?’

Jisung snorted. ‘If anything, I feel like I should be asking you that. Are you ok?’

‘Other than feeling conflicted, I’m fine. I just don't get why Felix of all people got worked up.’

‘He’s had- uh, similar issues, I guess, to the one you're in at the moment. Except his situation ended badly. I don't really feel like it’s my story to tell, but the basics are Felix had a friend who was pretty trash to him, and he ended up moving from Australia to Korea to get away.’

‘Oh, uh, yikes. I guess that explains why he got so heated over everything.’

‘He’ll calm down after a few cups of ramyeon, and maybe a package of Anzac biscuits. But aside from Felix, what are you gonna do about your situation?’

‘Uh, I’m not too sure. I’m conflicted.’

‘Wanna voice your thoughts?’

‘Not really. At least, not now.’

Jisung looked slightly hurt by Changbin’s decision, but quickly turned away. ‘We should catch up with the others.’

Changbin wanted to say something, to reassure Jisung that he wanted to share, but he just needed time, but he caught himself. Why did he feel the need to justify his actions to the younger? It’s not like Jisung was extremely open with him either. The witch had been slightly off ever since the disaster of a hiking trip they had gone on, and Changbin had found himself constantly stuck in his head on what he did wrong. Did he say something to offend the other? Jisung wouldn’t meet his eyes, and he always turned away when he was caught staring instead of making strange faces at him.

He didn’t even remember a good part of the journey home. He remembered panicking when Jisung passed out halfway down the mountain, temperature hotter than a thousand suns. He remembered shoving his new friend haphazardly into the back seat of Chan’s car, going way too fast down the highway but thankfully never getting pulled over. He remembered calling Felix, panicked and worried beyond belief. The last thing he fully remembered was Seungmin asking for vials of his bodily fluids (why had he said yes?) and then... nothing. Did he fall asleep? Did he pass out? The next morning, he had awoken in Jisung’s bed feeling like he needed six more hours of sleep, disoriented, and kind of queasy. He assumed whatever bug Jisung had caught on the mountain had probably been transmitted to him, and he was just getting over it. 

Jisung had been in the kitchen, ‘Starting on your stupid potion. I nearly died for this shit so you better appreciate it.’ And when he tried to ask why a knocked out Felix, Seungmin, Minho pile was fast asleep at the foot of his couch, Jisung just waved a hand at him and told him it was a regular occurrence.

Changbin had never felt more awkward than he did at that moment, standing in Jisung’s living room still caked in sweat, dirt, and grimy clothes from the night before. The snores of the three by the couch did nothing to cover the fact that Jisung was refusing to look in Changbin’s direction.

‘Do you mind if I, uh, shower?’

‘Oh! Yeah- shower- yeah. Towels are in the closet next to the bathroom. Feel free to borrow any of my clothes. I woke up feeling pretty gross too.’

‘How long ago did you wake up?’

‘Uh, it’s four now so-’

‘Four?’

‘A few hours.’

‘So much for school?’

Jisung snorted but still didn't look at him. ‘Oh well. It’s not like it's nothing we can’t make up.’

‘Right. Well, Imma shower now.’ After Changbin had showered (even his bathroom was jam-packed with stuff. How many different types of soaps did one person need?) and tried to fit into Jisung’s too long but too tight pants (dear god, was this how girls felt every time they squeezed into jeans? Like everything would explode if they say down?), he wasn’t sure if he should stick around, or just leave. He didn't exactly feel welcome with how weird Jisung was acting around him, but he also felt like it would be equally as weird to just leave without saying anything.

So he did the next best thing, make excuses. ‘Hey, Ji- sorry, I don’t think I can stick around, I gotta-’ _Fuck fuck fuck think of something quick, uhh cat? You don't have a pet, dumbass. Neighbour sit? No, he’s been to your place and he knows how ass your neighbours are. Air out the apartment? You don't want him to think you're an actual slob-_

‘Nah, you're good, man. See you at school tomorrow?’

_What the fuck did I do? He still won't even look at me._ ‘Yeah. See you tomorrow.’

That had been a week ago, and things were barely better. The only time Jisung really ever looked at or talked to Changbin was in group settings or when he was giving him an update on whatever kind of potion he was boiling constantly in his kitchen.

So, in conclusion, _what the fuck Jisung? You barely look at me for a solid week and then get mad when I don't want to tell you about uncomfortable topics?_

Maybe he’d be able to pull the witch aside on the way back from Chan’s apartment and finally get a chance to ask him what was plaguing his mind constantly. Jisung had also been super zoney and spacey the past week. He would zone out constantly, staring at nothing and everything, contemplating the secrets of the universe and what to have for dinner.

He ran to catch up to Felix and friends and started ridiculing Hyunjin for his height. The mocking soon turned into an argument about whether they would want to fight three Changbin sized Hyunjin's, or a Hyunjin sized Changbin.

‘One would beat the shit out of me, the other would just annoy me to death.’

‘Ok, but which is which?’

Seungmin deadpanned to Hyunjin. ‘Guess.’

Chan’s apartment was much less _Chan_ than he expected, but that was what he got for basing his assumptions of Chan’s apartment off his studio. Chan’s studio was filled with papers, books, figurines, and empty binders. Chan had once joked that he was the overflow space for extra office supplies, but then Changbin had literally stumbled across a box of five thousand cheap plastic ballpoint pens and suddenly Chan’s statement seemed more fact than a joke. He really didn’t enjoy picking up all the pens.

Chan’s apartment was very clean, very tidy, and very decluttered. ‘Wow, Jisung, you could learn a thing or two from this place.’

‘Did you just call me a slob?’

‘No, he called you a packrat.’ Minho said, emerging from a room. ‘You have enough junk to fuel a flea market for a month.’

‘It’s not junk! Its-’

‘Sungie. You have six toasters, only two of which work, and you never use any of them.’

‘I use them for parts! And why would I take apart the ones that work? And what if someone needs a toaster? Bam! I have two.’

‘Thank you, Bin. As you can see, I don't all the work around here-’

‘He’s a housewife, and Chan’s the dad that work’s five to nine.’

‘Isn’t it nine to five?’

‘Nope, Chan hyung works five to nine am, and then some.’

‘It’s true, I can attest he spends more time in his studio than he does here. But at least that means it’s always clean here. So, what did you want to talk about Innie?’

'Do we wanna wait until Chan hyung's here?'

'Nah, he told me to not wait for him, he got caught up in something he wasn't able to escape out of early. Plus, I'll just fill him in.'

‘I may have found some things out about the curse you walked into on Jirisan.’

‘Oh, shit-’ Jisung nearly fell off the chair he was precariously perched on.

‘Honestly, it’s some freaky stuff. You know a bunch about how curses work Jisungie hyung.

‘Yeah but-’

‘The curse you got caught up in was man-made and not an accident. Someone planted it there on purpose. I’m not sure if they planted it there expecting you especially to run into it, but the fact that cursed traps are being spotted again.’

Jisung grimaced, ‘yeah it’s not a good sign.’

‘What’s it mean?’

‘It means the hunters are active again.’ Hyunjin paled. 

‘Hunters?’ Changbin asked. ‘Those exist?’

‘Yeah, that’s the reason why we were so scared to accept a human into the friend group in the first place, we didn’t want you to sell us out to a group of hunters or anything.' Minho said casually as he was putting dishes away in the kitchen. 'Even if you didn't know supernatural exterminators existed, we still didn’t want to take any chances.’

‘About that’, Jeongin spoke up. ‘I don’t think Changbin is completely human.’

‘Ah of course.’

‘What is he then?’ Felix asked, looking unnerved.

‘This is where I’m stuck, I have no idea. All I know is that the curse you ran into Jisung was by no means natural, and you probably would have died if it wasn’t for Changbin doing... whatever the fuck he did, you’d be dead.’

‘So I’m some kind of anti curse beacon?’

‘As I said, if I knew what the heck you did, this would be a lot easier. But as it is, there’s only a small window of species that could even heal a curse like that. I would say wait to finish the identifying potion, and we’ll go from there.’

'How long until it'll be done Sungie?' Seungmin asked, eyes glued to his phone.

'Uhhh, It's been roughly a week, so like two more? The new moon's happening in five days, and after that, I have to let it sit for ten more days then freeze it for three more.'

'Urgh.' Hyunjin made a face. 'I'm so glad I'm not a witch. I think I would explode everything because I wasn’t patient enough.'

‘Who wants japchae?’ Minho called from the kitchen.

‘Oooo, are you actually cooking, hyung?’ Jisung asked.

‘Of course not. Why would I cook for a bunch of heathens just after I cleaned my kitchen?’

‘Damn, stingy.’

‘Don't call the person who’s buying you dinner stingy.’

‘I’m convinced you can't actually cook. Sue, I’ve seen it, but I've never actually tasted any of it. Until the day I consume food made by your hands-’

Changbin looked over to the others. Felix was trying to teach Jeongin a card game, and Seungmin and Hyunjin were entranced by whatever was happening on Seungmin’s phone.

Was everyone just going to...forget the gloomy news that was delivered just moments prior? Granted, there wasn’t anything they could do until Jisung was done with...whatever he was brewing in his kitchen. Maybe pushing it to the back of his mind until later was the best thing to do, for now. Changbin joined the strange card game Felix was trying to teach (the star totally made the rules up in his own favour) and tried to immerse himself in the moment of fun he was having to forget the impending feeling of doom that had been creeping up on him all day.

The rest of the night’s sombre atmosphere dissolved when Chan walked through the door with dinner for everyone. A trashy movie was put on in the background, and the rest of the time spent at Minho and Chan’s apartment was playing with Minho’s cats (why did Minho own cats when he was one?) and watching Felix, Chan, and Hyunjin make stupid bets none of them could do.

Later that night, when Changbin had gotten back to his apartment, his phone pinged with a message from an unsaved sender:

Unrecognized Number: Hey this is Soobin  
I’m in the same class as SEungmin  
And I was the friend Yeonjun hyung was picking up  
And I may or may not have broke into hyunjins phone to get ur info...  
I know his actions look bad  
Like, fuck bro, if he pulled the same shit to me, I don't think I would hear him out  
But he did have a reason, plz hear him out  
[ Choi Yeonjun❤ ]  
There’s his contact info, i guess it's up to u if u wanna hear him out or not  
Just know he’s willing to meet and explain everything anytime

Yeonjun, that asshole. Now the ball was in Changbin’s court, and he didn't know what he wanted to do with it.

* * *

‘Hey, Jisung, I think it’s done.’

‘Already?’

‘Yeah, it...uh, well it changed colours really fast.’ Changbin said as he held up the beaker. The once pink liquid inside had turned pitch black. ‘Did I do this right?’

‘I don't think it’s supposed to do that...uhhhh...huh.’

‘Does that mean there's something wrong with me?’

‘No! Not at all. I probably made the potion wrong.’

‘What else does that chart of yours say?’

Ho boy. The potion was finally done after what felt like forever. Ok, it was actually two and a half weeks, but the twenty days the stupid mixture took were some of the longest of Jisung's life. Not only did he have to constantly babysit the mess in his kitchen to make sure he didn't burn down the apartment, school was also up his ass with the end of his senior year around the corner, as well as the looming issue of Changbin becoming more prevalent. 

Sure, there was the whole feelings issue (Hyunjin had even cornered him to tell him he was being obvious and if he didn't want to give himself away, he needed to be less obstinate around the other) but there was also the new _who-the-fuck-are-you_ issue. Sure, they had the whole discussion at Chan’s about Changbin being possibly not a human, but that was all Jisung had heard of the topic since and it bothered him more than he wanted to let on.

It clearly bothered Chanbin too, but if he could pretend like everything was ok, and not complain about his impending identity crisis, what right did Jisung have to complain in his stead?

‘That I’m a dumbass and I made the stupid thing wrong! Ugh, sorry, Bin.’

‘Well, you did say it was a pain to make in the first place. Maybe it doesn't work on humans.’

‘I don’t ever think I’ve tested it on a human. Maybe that’s why it’s going crazy, and not my trash potion skills.’

‘Who else have you tested this on?’

‘Most of the friend group. That’s how I made it in the first place, a shit ton of trial and error and wasting expensive ingredients. Felix told me I should try baking, but he tried to make a potion once and it was almost as bad as my attempt at trying to make brownies.’

‘I think for once I agree with Felix on something. Stick to potions.’

‘Hey-'

‘What happened with everyone else you tested this on?’

‘I know mine and Chan hyung’s turned blue, Hyunjin turned dark red, Minnie's turned a light green I think, and Felix was some weird colour like yellow or orange.’

‘What about Minho hyung?’

‘The bitch wouldn’t let me, he nearly spilled all of it when I asked him to let me experiment on him. I have more notes on the whole process somewhere around here, probably in the spare room where I found a good majority of them.’

‘If your notes are so important, why don’t you stick them all in a notebook or a binder.’

‘Because that would require a brain cell, and I only have access to one of those occasionally.’

Jisung took the vial from Changbin. ‘Wonderful, this is gonna be a pain to clean up. Give me a sec to soak everything and I’ll join you.’

‘Do you want help? I mean-'

‘Nah, don't bother. The kitchen is small and I know where everything goes.’

‘Ok.’

Jisung stated in the mixture. There was no way he made it incorrectly. If he did, it wouldn’t be the translucent pink colour it was now. He took a clean vial, filled it halfway with more mixture and dropped a piece of his finger mail in. As he thought, on contact with the nail the potion started to turn a bright cerulean.

On the other hand, with the vial that Changbin had just given him, the liquid had started to solidify, the mixture being the consistency of tar.

Humans wouldn’t react this way to the potion. He didn’t want to say anything, a panicky Changbin was the last thing he wanted. If Changbin was a human, the concoction would have stayed pink. Which meant Jeongin was right. The chart-

Oh shit, he had a chart. What did it say for black?

_Black - yikes_

Of course, of course, he couldn’t write anything useful in his notes. His brain forbid he actually take useful notes. _You are the sole reason why witches are the laughing stock of the magical community-_

When he told most people he was a witch, nearly no one believed him. Your too powerful, people would say. Most assumed he was a warlock, which was laughable. What kind of warlock could make potions?

Witches were known to be the weaker species and were some of the weakest magic users out there, but somehow Jisung was off the charts with magical energy. He barely had any control over it, as an actual warlock could, but witches were also known for how little control they exhibited of their energy. Usually, it wasn't a big deal, because none of them had much energy to spend. But with Jisung-

Sure, having what felt like a nearly bottomless pit of an energy reserve was great sometimes. He could do tasks that ordinary witches, and sometimes even mages found difficult without having to carefully think about how they would affect him. But the drawbacks almost made it not worth it. When he used too much energy, it took forever for him to feel slightly ok again. Saying Jisung was jealous of Chan’s recovery time was a great understatement. He also had to watch how sporadic his energy could be, and wear a suppressor at most times. He hated the stupid thing, it made him constantly drowsy and irritated. But he had mostly gotten used to and lived with the effects, almost to the point where he could go a whole day while wearing it.

Since he confirmed he didn't make the potion wrong, this either meant Changbin was more cursed than he originally thought or a demon. But the latter was impossible. Innie and Hyunjin would have noticed demonic energy coming off of the other boy immediately if he was. And since Innie couldn’t get any read on the older, that meant he had to be cursed by something more than a vampire right? But if Changbin was cursed, the vial would have turned into a dark shade of dirty pink, not the strange tar substance he was dreading dealing with.

_ Black - yikes _

_ Either _

_ u done fucked up hoe, or demonic? - hyunjin is dark red bc he only half a demon _

**Jisng - > Cute🦊  
**

Jisng: so i ran the species thing on changbin and uhhhh  
Results were not pretty

Cute **🦊** : how so?  
Don't tell me he made anything explode

Jisng: not exactly  
So u remember when I used all of u as test subjects to make sure I got it right?

Cute **🦊** : yee  
Mine was orange  
Minnie was a green  
I think urs was blue? Porole ?   
*poodle   
*puddle   
HURDLE   
PAROLE   
FUCK 

Jisng: LOL   
yeah that bitch blue  
I ran it on bin  
And it caaame out black

Cute **🦊** : doesn't that just mean u fucked up?

Jisng: i thought so  
But i tested it on myself again  
And it turned blue

Cute **🦊** : i knew he wasn't human  
But now  
What the fuck is he

Jisng: uhhh according to my notes  
Which are extremely accurate  
Something demonic  
Or cursed by something demonic

Cute **🦊** : bro  
I would have felt evil omniouns energy coming from him if that was the case  
But other than wariness i haven't gotten anything off of him  
Which i think is why he pisces me off

Jisng: innie noooooooooo  
Its not his fautttttttttttt

Cute **🦊** : yeah i know  
But if anything  
It makes the situation more 🤔

Jisng: anything else i should test out with bin?

Cute **🦊** : isn't he older than u

Jisng: wat

Cute **🦊** : changbin  
Shouldn't he be changbin hyung

Jisng: don't act like u don't use honorofics behind our backs

Cute **🦊** : 😘  
Is there anything that like checks for curses?  
To see what kind of curse he may be under

Jisng: uhhhhh i donk think so but ill look for one  
But  
What are we gonna do if binnie is actually a spawn of hell?

Cute **🦊** : cry?  
Ask chan?  
Hyung  
I'm not sure  
Do u think he even knows?

Jisng:i'm almost certain he doesn't  
But uhhhhh  
Yeha let me go look up how to identify demonic curses and how to spot if people have them the ill get back to u on that

* * *

_Really helpful guide to the one potion and what the colour results mean:_

_Green - Seungmin, nature-y fae, elf something like that - basically nature spirits or anything that has power of nature - so like elves and fae and nymphs n shit_

_Orange - innie! Not energy-based, but like, ancient? Wait, u just called the child old (he ain't a child tho, the kids like, 80) - but his powers aren't energy driven, and he’s not exactly a nature spirit. Where tf do they come from? uhhhhhhhh fuck idk - probably has something to do with how innie literally just poofed into existence so many years ago instead of actually being conceived like_

_Conceived is a gross word i never wanna write it again_

_Blue - AHA ME, basic energy-based powers, chan too - well, chan’s more white than blue, but there's still some blue in his white - bc ice? | so anyone whos a witch or madge or a warlock_

_Warlocks are more rare because their energy is more signatureistic? Uhhh how do explain_

_So the book literally says “warlocks are the product of time” which uhhh what the fuck does that mean Koby Briant - but like - I guess the worst way to think of it is if u smashed a madge and a vampire together - they're kinda immortal in the sense of they don't die from age or ailment but they can do really complicated spells_

_So me - a dumb witch - can do spells and potions n shit, but only very generalized bc I don't have very good control over my energy_

_Mages have better control over their energy, and therefore are like specialized witches because every mage has an element alignment - that was an awful way to put it - CHAN! Think of chan hyung - the kiddo does kool ice shit - his element is ice (water but the board can fuck off)_

_Warlocks are like the 0.05 pen in the pack of art tracing pens - can do really cool intricate stuff with their energy because of the vast amount of control they have over it_

_Yellow - Felix - this is the only fuck whos turned yellow - so uh? Spacy? Starry? Not sure - research more_

_Green_ _\- u already wrote that one dumbass_

_Red - hyunjinniee actually, hyunjin's a dark red_

_Red doesn't really have any rules unlike green and blue_

_Vampires and werewolves are red - but what the fuck do they have in common? Both species are technically dieses? Vampirism and lycanthropy._

_Wanna test this on someone under a strong love potion - sees if it turns red_

_Purple - uh h_

_White - angelic? idfk lol chan_

_ Black - yikes _

_ Either _

_ u done fucked up hoe, or demonic? - hyunjin is dark red bc he only half a demon _

_ But anything demonic will be a darker shade - so if a nature spirit is half demon, or cursed by anything demonic, it’ll turn a dark green - as opposed to the blinding-sickening neon green the thing turns _

_the stupid book also says darker colours means cursed?_

_So does that mean white, is like, pure?_

_Eh, i've never seen white - like pure ass white - chan’s probably the closest I've gotten to white_

_Wonder what would happen with this is i ran ti on a human_

_Would it just turn one colour?_

_Or would it reflect the colour of their soul_

_Minho wouldnt let meeeeee test him :((((_

_The fucker said he’d be green?_

_Sus bitch e.e_

_Mission: find pliant and willing human(s) to run test on_

_Update: because Yoorim has suck long fucking hair i was able to steal one off her jacket_

_It doesn't do anything, potion stays clear, yoorin human can confirm (she’s just a fucking tree)_


	11. Out Of The Fry Pan And Into The Fryer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhh lol rip sorry I like died for a month  
> I tried to exist and life went lmao nah
> 
> I wasn’t sure if I should split this into two chapters or not  
> So I did  
> I’ll upload the second ine in like 39 hours or smthin
> 
> Enjoi
> 
> (also, happy late birthday IN and early b day hyunjin and happy borthday day meeeeeeeee hot damn I'm so old)

‘Are you ok Changbin? You seem on edge lately.’ Felix asked.

Changbin hesitated before responding. ‘I think someone’s looking for me.’ He knew he sounded paranoid, but today had been a weird day, and his nerves were frazzled. On his way to school earlier today, he had been stopped and forced to go on a detour by a ghost he had never seen before, and stopped and yelled at to turn back by another (There was also the hotteok stand lady who yelled at him, but he was no longer phased by her comments anymore). While his day at school was fairly quiet, he encountered two more transparent pals on the way to work. When contemplating the consequences of staying the night at the convenience store (it wouldn’t have been the first time) Felix had walked in during his shift with the excuse that he was bored and wanted to bully Changbin. ‘Changbin, entertain and feed me.’

‘Call my hyung, and I’ll think about it.’

‘Ugh, fine, hyung.’

While at its surface it looked like Felix just wanted free ice cream, he did seem to have an alternative motive. So with a sated star gouging on strawberry icee bars perched up on the checkout counter, Changbin assumed it was safe to ask questions.

‘And you really here because?’

‘I love my new hyung so much because he gives me free ice cream?’

‘Like hell.’ Changbin pushed the freckled boy off the counter with a snort. ‘Stay off the counter, my boss will actually commit murder.’

‘He’s not here, and neither are customers. When people actually start showing I’ll make myself scarce.’

‘Go bully Hyunjin. I’m sure he would appreciate it more than I am right now.’

‘While Hyunjin deserves to be bullied, he- I don't wanna interact with him right now.’

‘Did you two fight?’

‘We’re fine!’ But the tone the younger spat the statement suggested the two were everything but.

‘I can see that.’ Changbin said drily.

Felix snapped his ice lolly stick while his gaze zoned out on the drink fridges.

‘Ok, how about we talk about something more fun, like why you decided to bully me today. Is Jisung being a pain in the ass for you too?’

‘When is he not? Nah, he was busy with Chan hyung and Minho hyung. Something about toothpaste and tin foil? I’m convinced they went to test out homemade bombs in an abandoned field and then see who can run from the cops the best without their powers, but Jisung said they weren't.’

‘That was too specific for you to not have done that before.’

‘Oh? So you're up?’

‘Absolutely not. I am a sad, short human who would most definitely get a life sentence for putting a half-eaten sandwich in a sports drink bottle and calling it C4, but that's beside the point.’

‘Sounds like a fun time. But no, I wanted to ask you about Hyunjin.’

‘About Hyunjin? What about Hyunjin?’

‘Has he seemed off to you at all? Like, I dunno, irritable or paranoid as of late.’

‘Isn’t that just exam season? And isn't Jinnie always paranoid?’

‘I guess, but Jinnie isn’t the type of person to fret over exams. He’s one of those annoying people who don’t care about their grades and never studies, yet somehow does ok with better than passing grades.’

‘That’s disgusting. I think life is unfair that not everyone has to put in the same amount of effort to get to the same place, but it's not like we can actually do anything about it.’

‘Oh? Are you a studious one?’

‘Not really. I thought dropping out of school once and repeating my junior year would have told you that though?’

‘Ah, right. Sorry?’

Changbin snorted. ‘Don't you know it’s rude to lie?’

‘No, it's- shit. I didn't mean to bring it up like that. I know I can be an insensitive asshole sometimes, and I know I’ve not been too great to you, so, uh, I guess this is me making an effort.’

‘Not just for free ice cream?’ But Changbin couldn’t help the small smile on his face. Someone was trying to be nicer to him. Maybe not exactly for him, but the effort was more appreciated than he could truly put into words.

‘Ok, sure. All for the free Ice cream. You caught me.’

‘Well, I hate to break it to you, but your beloved free ice cream is melting.’

‘ _Ahhhhh noooooo not my freeee nooooo-’_ The ice lolly that Felix had started making his way through had melted down his hand and into a small puddle on the floor during their conversation. Changbin couldn’t help but laugh to himself. The scene was entertaining, even if it did make more work for him.

‘So what’s so weird about Hyunjin?’ Changbin asked after he had brought the mop out and was halfway done the store. May as well clean the whole floor, no one had walked in all night except for a few teenagers at the beginning of his shift, and probably no one was going to enter for a good while.

‘He’s been _weird lately_!’

Thanks, you explained nothing. Weird _how_?’

Felix huffed in frustration, glaring angrily at the napkin dispenser. He had attempted to grab a napkin, but the top one had only ripped in his grasp, and so had the other three he had tried to pull out of the dispenser. ‘It’s like he’s ignoring me or something. He doesn't spend as much time with me anymore, which, sure, fine, I get it. School gets busy and student council can be a real bitch sometimes. But like, give me a heads up? Let me know if you can't come to the plans we made? Stop being irritable when I ask why you missed them and basically stood me up? He’s normally only this irritable when the blood moon comes around, but there isn't going to be one anytime soon and one hasn’t passed recently.’

‘Blood moon?’

‘Oh, uh, fun demony stuff. Nothing you need to worry about.’

‘Have you brought any of this up to Hyunjin?’

‘Of course not, that’s an awful idea. Why would I do that?’

Ah, there was the urge to strangle Felix. He knew it was around him somewhere, and only now did it rear its ugly head. ‘He may not realize he’s blowing you off as hard as he is? Maybe he just has a lot going on and is bottling everything up? I’m not the best person to go to for friendly advice, but I do know what it’s like to think you're alone. Try talking to him, and even if you just let him know you're always there for him, I’m sure he’d appreciate it.’

Felix looked up and stopped trying to murder the now slightly broken napkin dispenser. ‘For a loner, you sure have some words of wisdom. I’ll do that, I guess.’

Changbin snorted. ‘Gee thanks. Please stop molesting the napkin dispenser. I don't want to have to pay to have it fixed.’

Felix hung around until the end of Changbin’s shift, the star being, surprisingly, pleasant company. He got along pretty well with Felix when he wasn't busy trying to find reasons he didn't like him. He was also surprised when Felix agreed to walk with him back to his apartment. Throughout his whole shift, he had a feeling. It bothered him that he couldn’t quite place it, but something seemed off, something seemed wrong. Like how some people could tell it would rain by the pressure in the air, Changbin now seemed to have a bad times sensor. 

If only it worked earlier in his life.

Felix made a face at him. ‘Why would anyone want to find you? And how would you know? Hello? Earth to Binnie hyung.’

Changbin shook himself out of his thoughts and stopped right before he ran into a light post. ‘The ghosts keep warning me to stay away from certain areas. Telling me that bad things will happen if I go a certain way. It’s happened before, once a few years ago, and a few times when I transferred here, but it’s become much more frequent and makes getting home difficult.’

‘Difficult?’

‘The route I would normally take is either blocked off, or someone tells me to go a different way. Some ghosts have even forcefully knocked things over obstructing my path to the point where I have to go a different way or spend a bunch of time cleaning up the mess they made. One of them said something strange to me the other day.’

‘Wha’d they say.’

‘Something about a warning, and to never meet the others or them. They were never clear, just to turn around and leave fast.’

‘How ominous. And you’ve told the others about it, right?’

‘Not yet. I guess I just saw it as a poltergeist fulfilling their job. But now that the warnings have become more frequent, it’s kinda freaking me out.’

‘Who else have you told?’

‘Uhhh, no one else.’

‘Bruh.’

‘What? I didn’t think it was that big of a deal until now! I kinda- it makes me not wanna go back home.’

‘If you’re trying to be smooth and think you can pull some of that I’m-scared-sleep-with-me bullshit-‘

‘What? No! Felix, stop that! I told you because I don’t know what I should do. I have a bad feeling about going back.’

‘How about this? I’ll walk you to your apartment, you pack an overnight bag, for like, a week, and we’ll find somewhere else for you to stay?’

‘Oh? You’re offering? How kind, my fabulous star-‘

‘Shut it. I’m not offering, but Chan hyung or Jisung might. Maybe Innie’s is an option if his brother’s ok with it, but then you’d have to deal with him.’

‘Shouldn’t we, ya know... _ask_ and then pack?’

‘Oh sweaty, don’t you know it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than anything else?’

* * *

~ Felix’s notes on Beginning Korean for bitches: Important phrases ~

Tf is this language man

Sadkjfhakljsdhfkljashdflkjasfdh

Aite

Hello, bitch

안녕 an nyeong 

Hello -> not for bitches

안녕하세요 anyeong HA saeyo 

When in doubt, formal it out

Goodbye bitch:

For bitches

안녕 -> apparently this is disrespectful - use for everyone

If ur leaving and bitches are staying

안녕히겨세요 -> anyeong hi GAY saeyo

If ur staying but bitches are leaving

안녕히가세요 -> anyeong hi GA saeyo

Nice to meet you bitch

반갑습니다 -> ban gap seub niDa

How is ur ass?

어떻게지내세요 -> odeuh gayji naesaeyo

Can I have ur number?

전화 번호 좀 알려주세요

Can I leave now?

지금 나가도 될까요 

Thank you bitch

감사합니다 

Apologizing for ur sorry ass:

Sorry is a fuxking verb _bitch why_

Sorry bitch

미안 -> sorry 하다 -> action of being

Formally saying sorry -> for when u fuck it infrotn of old people or ur boss

미안합니다 -> mian hab nida

Politely saying sorry -> older people

미안해요 -> mian haeyo

Casual -> literally every other bitch out there

미안해 -> mian hae

When u really really fuxk up

Add a 정밀 (really) in front of the 미낭 안

I want / I would like / I need

나는 원한다 / 나는 싶습니다 / 난 필요해

I don't want / I don't like / I can't

난 원하지 않는다 / 나는 좋아하지 않는다 / 내가 할 수 없습니다

  
  


Useful phrases:

Do you know where i can go to die?

내가 어디로 가서 죽을 수 있는지 아십니까?

Can you go die?

죽을 수 있니? 

I need help / help me bitch

내가 도움이 필요 / 저를 도와주세요 

Can you help me?

도와 줄수있으세요 

Where’s the nearest boba place?

가장 가까운 보바 장소가 어디예요 

Do you sell vegemite?

판매합니까 베지 마이트

Fuck off

저리 가요

Please fuck off

제발 저리가 

Sorry my aunt is in the hospital and i need to visit her, not today

미안 내 이모가 병원에 내가 그녀를 방문해야, 오늘은 아니야 

What time is it bitch

몇시입니까 

What / where / why / how / who / how much 

뭐 / 어디 / 왜 / 어떻게 / 누구/ 얼마예요

Numbers bc i can't count for shit:

Numbers as in phone numbers (anything 100+)

0 - yeong - 영

1 - il - 일

2 - i - 이

3 - sam - 삼

4 - sa - 사

5 - o - 오

6 - yuk - 육

7 - chil - 칠

8 -pal - 팔

9 - gu - 구

10 - ship - 십

Numbers as in how many / age (1 - 99)

1 - hana - 하나

2 - dul - 둘

3 - set - 셋

4 - net - 넷

5 - daseot - 다섯

6 - yeoseot - 여섯

7 - ilgop - 일갚 

8 - yeodeol - 여덜 여덟 

9 - ahop - 아홉 

10 - yeol - 열

* * *

One of the last things Jisung ever thought he would witness was Changbin and Felix getting along. Especially at one am in his apartment living room on a weekday. Felix had a smug smile and Changbin had his backpack and a duffel bag slung over his back.

Jisung stared at Changbin and Felix standing in his living room. The witch had been abruptly awoken by all the noise Felix had made when he was rummaging through the other’s kitchen, looking for a one am snack. ‘Let me get this straight-’

‘Can't be something you're not-’

‘You’ve felt weird all day- Shut up, Felix- and felt really uneasy at home, so you want to spend the night here to, like, ease your nerves?’

Changbin wouldn't meet his eyes. ‘Yes? I know it sounds bad, and like weird, but I was hoping you could either come check out my apartment with me tomorrow so I can figure out what's so weird or-’

‘Yeah, yeah, sure. Are you planning on staying here for a while, or is this a one-night stop?’

‘Uhhh, yes?’ Changbin didn't look like he knew how to answer that question. 

Jisung was exhausted. He had already been startled awake from loud noises in his kitchen, which was a most unpleasant way to wake up, and now Changbin was asking if he could stay for an indefinite amount of time. While he had no issues with the guy staying for a night or two, indefinitely was pushing it.

But he could deal with everything in the morning, he had no energy to do that now. ‘Great, fine. I can get the couch set up for you. We’ll deal with this in the morning. Felix-’

‘Fucking off. Night bitches.’ Felix was out the door before he could even say anything else.

Despite Jisung going straight back to bed after helping Changbin get settled, he couldn't fall back asleep. He was exhausted and had no energy, but every time he closed his eyes, they couldn't seem to stay closed. His mind was too busy for sleep to be restful in any fashion. If he did end up sleeping, it would probably be unrestful and filled with horrifyingly vivid nightmares. 

_Close your eyes. Open them, close them, open them. Ten minutes have passed. Close your eyes, open them, four minutes have passed. Close them, open them, thirty-two minutes have passed._

Before he knew it, the sun had crested the horizon and it was eight in the morning. Urgh, so much for sleeping. Should he start to make breakfast? Clean up his living room? Should he ever leave his room? Changbin was still in the living room, probably asleep like any normal person would be- well, it was a school day. Maybe Bin had the foresight to set an alarm or the discipline to wake up- 

Nope, the fucker was still out cold on the couch, the duvet bunched up around his arms and face. But he was a heavy sleeper, right? So if he started making noise, Changbin would stay asleep?

Mostly. Jisung was halfway through boiling hot water when Changbin started making noises. For being so short (who was Jisung to talk, he was like, three centimetres taller) the human sure knew how to take up all the couch space. 

‘Morning sunshine, wakey wakey sleeping beauty. I will actually murder you if you drooled on my couch. Want tea?’

All Bin did was make louder unintelligible noises, before rolling back into the couch.

‘Aw, come on that's no way to greet the day, up!’ Jisung pulled the blanket off Changbin, but all the shorter did was curl up in an even smaller ball.

He glared at Jisung from the couch. ‘Morning people. You guys are an evil bread.’

‘Technically, it’s not even considered early, it’s only seven forty. I could have been an actual heathen and woken you up at six.’

‘That's a crime against nature and I refuse to acknowledge six-hundred hours as a real time.’

‘Well, you were the one who barged in here at one in the morning-’

‘You don't lock your door-’

‘And _you_ are the one who wants _me_ to check out your apartment. Dawn is the least witchiest hour, so move that fat ass and let’s goooooo.’

* * *

‘What was that?’ Jisung flinched at a loud muffled screeching noise echoed throughout the hall. Changbin didn't even flinch, which was funny considering how he kept looking over his shoulder the whole walk there.

‘Probably the neighbours screaming again. They're not exactly the most quiet of residents.’

The other's apartment was a bigger mess than he last remembered, probably because the last time he was there it was night, or Bin was just a natural slob.

‘Do they normally scream like someone’s getting decapitated?’ Jisung asked as another bout of screeching started.

‘They're upcoming streamers or something. It’s pretty entertaining to watch their streams and hear them through the walls at the same time, but I’ve just learned how to use earplugs when it bleeds into the early hours. Plus, the other floor neighbours give the leasing office a ton of noise complaints about them. I don't need to add to it.’

‘Why would they be streaming this early in the morning?’ Jisung asked, half weirded out, half peeved. 

‘Who knows.’ Changbin called from back in his room. ‘Probably haven't gone to sleep yet.’

Jisung wandered to the doorway of Chanbin’s room, only to see it was an even bigger mess than the first time he visited. ‘The only weird thing around here is the shrieking neighbours and the gas smell. You didn't leave your stove on, did you?’

‘I rarely ever use my stove.’

‘So then where is the-’ Jisung was cut off by the shrill sound of the fire alarm going off.

‘Ah, wonderful, the maintenance team probably set it off again. At least it's at nine this time and not four in the morning. That sucked.’

‘Do you smell...something burning?’

‘Burning? As in the building is actually on fire and the fire alarm wasn't set off by accident?’

Jisung opened his mouth to say something, but just then the fire alarm was abruptly shut off. Something wasn’t right. Even if the fire alarm was accidentally set off, in a complex as run down as this one, it would normally take someone forever to shut the alarm off, unless a smart techy resident knew how to mess with alarm wiring to shut it off. This- this was more like the alarm was set off, then cut off.

Changbin just shrugged. ‘See? Probably maintenance.’

‘Bin,’ Jisung said, tone filled with urgency, ‘We should leave.’

‘Leave? I thought we were here so you could figure out what was up with my apartment. As much as having an occasional sleepover with you is fun, I don't think you would appreciate me crashing over for too long.’

‘No, it- it’s not that-’

‘I’m dense, not dumb, Ji. I know my sudden visit last night kinda made you uncomfortable.’

‘Where else could you have gone?’

‘Chan hyung’s? But I don't think I’d be able to be there for very long before Minho hyung would throw me out. I could always crash at Hyunjin’s, possibly. But from what Felix said, it sounds like he and Seungmin are over there a lot despite the two of them sharing a flat. Do you think there's something going on between them?’

Was he Changbin’s first choice? Is that why he crashed over at his place? The thought of Changbin defaulting to Chan hyung for these types of things made Jisung antsy, and he didn't know why. Did he want Bin to rely heavily on him, and not Chan hyung? Wasn't the older technically more reliable because he had more wise-old-sage-type wisdom and life advice to give when someone was in a situation?

'But the weird part about it all was Felix came and asked me for advice about Hyunjin. Why would I know more about Hyunjin than he would? He's the one simping over his ass- but it sounds like Both Seungmin and Felix have noticed Jinnie being fucking weird-'

Changbin was still rambling about the weirdness between Felix, Hyunjin, and Seungmin when a feeling of dread shot down Jisung’s spine. Everything in him told him they needed to get out, _now._ ‘Bin, Bin- _oh my god shut up for a second._ Yeah, cool, great- we need to get out of here now. Grab whatever you need to not come back for a while and let's leave.’

‘What, did you sense something? Do you know what's up? Can you fix it?’

‘Let’s deal with it later, we just have to leave now!’

‘Ok, yeesh, no need to-’

‘Changbin, please. I don't know how dire it is, but something is wrong and it's bad.’

The older just nodded as he disappeared into his room to grab a half-filled duffel bag and throw more clothes into it. ‘Anything I can help grab?’ Jisung offered. 

‘Oh, uh, clothes I guess? Just throw anything in, I’ll be right back.’ With that, the human rushed out into the living room. Jisung was in process of seeing how many pairs of socks more black jeans he could shove into the side of the bag when Changbin came running back into his room. ‘Holy shit, I think the building is actually on fire.’

‘All the more reason to leave now. Did you grab everything you need?’

‘Yeah. Can you carry this while I grab my bag?’ Changbin handed Jisung a box with a picture frame face down tied to the top and a book tied to the bottom. 

‘I’ll do you one better.’ Jisung pulled out a worn backpack from Changbin’s closet and shoved the box into it. ‘Tada.’ He may have ripped a seam or two when he aggressively tugged on the zipper, but it would have to do for now.

‘Wonderful. Now let’s get.’ Changbin started towards his front door.

‘Wait, Bin I don't think you should-’ Changbin, like a dumbass, flung his front door open and the two of them were assaulted with smoke from the hallway. ‘Oh god, get down.’ He managed to pull the _dumb whore_ down to avoid the wave of heat and smoke that filled the apartment, but he wasn’t lucky to avoid being crushed under the shorter. ‘Ow, fuck.’

‘Bro, you pulled me down, you asked for it.’

‘I saved you from temporary asphyxiation. Thank me later by never sitting on me again.’ 

The hallway wasn’t in a much better state. A few windows were already blown out, whether from the fire or residents would always remain a mystery. There was screaming from everywhere, and two doors down, the residents were frantically trying to grab at pets and other possessions before scrambling out of the building. ‘Keep low and head for the stairwell.’ Changbin muttered to Jisung.

The two of them reached the stairwell with few problems, but Jisung couldn’t help but pause when he saw the young boy crying in the corner by the fire escape door.

‘Hey, what are you-’

‘Go on ahead, I’ll meet you outside-’

That was when Changbin spotted the crying kid. There really wasn’t any time to argue as their surroundings were becoming hotter and the air was becoming harder to breathe. Changbin seemed to understand that too because one look from Jisung was all it took to have Changbin tossing his duffel to him as he picked up the sniffling child. ‘ _Go!_ ’

Ugh, the air was getting hotter, the smoke was getting thicker, it was getting harder to see straight, harder to breathe-

‘Ji! Jisung, stay with me.’ Oh god, there were three Changbins. One was bad enough, so why were there three? Which was even up? Would he fall to his death if he went the wrong way? Something grabbed his arm, oh, that was all three Changbins, melting into one where they grabbed his wrist. ‘Common, we're almost there. One more floor.’

And they almost made it. There were groaning sounds and a loud snap. If Changbin hadn’t jerked him back right then, he would have been crushed under a burning plank that used to be part of the ceiling. The child in Changbin’s arms screamed, and Jisung’s vision got even more blurry. 

‘Of course, right in front of the door. Ji are you-’ 

‘Whatever you are going to ask me, probably not. There’s three of you.’

* * *

‘Shit, ok. Here, hold the kid. I’m going to make a way out. Stay low and keep your shirt over your nose.’ Thankfully there was a fire extinguisher close to the door that had just caved in. Irony was a bitch. Changbin bashed in the glass covering the extinguisher with the heel of his foot. It took a few kicks before it was clear to pull out. Once the heavy red cylinder was free of its cubby, he started to go to town at a weakened section of rotting drywall, hoping his efforts wouldn’t be rendered useless. After a couple of attempts, he had a decent-sized hole and started to kick at the weakened section of wall. When a good-sized piece came away, Changbin had never been more grateful that he lived in a shitty complex. Another kick and there was enough room for the kid to crawl out of and maybe Jisung if he didn't mind getting a little scraped.

‘Psst, kid. Hey kid, look at me.’ He had to basically pull the kid’s face out of Jisung’s neck. ‘See the hole? Can you crawl through it for me? I’m sure your mom is out there.’

The kid just stared at Changbin like he had spoken to him in Finnish, but then nodded after a three-second stare off. He crawled through the new opening with more than enough room to spare, then turned and stared at them like he was expecting them to follow. ‘Go!’ Changbin tried to shoo the kid on, and eventually, he took off running.

‘Jis-shit.’ The younger man was not looking good at all. He had collapsed against the wall and was in a weird slouched position, his face pale and sweaty. Damn it, he was probably suffering from smoke inhalation really badly and wasn’t able to crawl out on his own. Changbin went back to happening at the wall with the fire extinguisher. What would happen if he hit a nail or something sharp and punctured his only heavy object? Would it explode in his face? Or just- poof? 

He kicked the wall in again, and while a good section of it gave away, his foot also got caught in the crumbling drywall and- oh _fuck._ That was gonna hurt. It was definitely sprained, if not worse. Instead of being insightful and kicking with the flat of his foot, he was a dumbass and went toe in, and now he was facing the consequences of a painful near splits with one foot embedded in crumbling, rotting drywall, while the other tried to keep him from falling on his already throbbing ankle. He somehow rolled out of everything and managed to pull his foot free from the debris. 

The outside was nice because the air no longer stung to breathe, but the front lawn of the building was even more hectic than the inside that was burning. People were running around frantically screaming, panicked and in hysterics. It looked more like the entire world decided to burn instead of a single, shitty income-controlled, under-maintenance apartment complex. But then again, since the complex he lived in was so cheap, for the people who lived here, it was their whole lives burning away. 

The only good thing about the now-good-sized hole in the wall was he could easily drag Jisung out of the fire (literally) and into fresh air. ‘Wh’re we goin?’

‘Common, work with me, Ji. Can you stand?’ Running out of a collapsing building by a hole in the wall was difficult, and Changbin had a newfound respect for stunt doubles. But dragging a second person out through the rough hole in the wall, a half-conscious one at that, made everything worlds more difficult. 

Once the two of them were outside into the fresh air, Jisung doubled over in a coughing fit. While some of the noises were concerning, it meant he was alive and breathing.

Oh man, the whole building looked even worse from the outside. The top few floors already had flames pouring out of the shattered windows, the west side seemed to be sagging to the point where it was collapsing in on itself. The chaos on the front lawn wasn’t any better, and there was no sign of any authorities weighing it be the police or firemen. Was anyone called? Should he call-

‘Where are you going?’ Jisung was mostly finished with his hacking fit and started to head back forwards the hole in the wall they came out of. ‘Ji, what the fuck, we should be getting further-‘

‘There could still be people in there. Like the kid. I gotta-‘

‘You're kidding me. No. You nearly fucking flatlined from smoke inhalation there's no way you’re going back in there.’

‘But there are others-‘

‘That’s not our job. Firefighters exist for a reason-'

‘Do you see any of them here? Who’s gonna help the people that are stuck-‘

‘Not you. I’m not about to let you play hero-'

‘It’s not about heroics-‘

‘Jisung _no.’_ Changbin grabbed Jisung by the elbow and started to drag him away from the building. He felt himself buzzing with energy, but that was probably his anger, or Jisung’s. He didn’t care where he ended up, he just needed to get away. There was no way he was letting Jisung risk his life again for people who he didn’t know. Most of his neighbours were pieces of work anyways, ungrateful lower class people who wanted nothing more than the free handouts life gave them. 

It was awful, the thought, but that’s how it was sometimes. None of the people in that building deserved to live if it meant Jisung was to die sacrificing himself and that was his bottom line.

Jisung stumbled and would have face-planted if Changbin wasn't holding his arm. 'Bin, What the fuck- Changbin what the fuck did you do?' 

'What do you mean what did I do-'

'It's gone-'

'What-'

'I can't feel my energy anymore. What the fuck did _you do_?' Oh great, now people were staring at them.

'You can't feel it? What does that even mean?'

Jisung's eyes burned into him filled with unfamiliar anger, 'My energy. _My magic_. It's gone. I couldn't make a piece of toast soggy or anything. It's gone and you did something.'

'How? I don't even know-' Changbin stopped. Was that the shock he felt earlier? The buzzing that covered his skin, the strange feeling that ran down his spine when he dragged Jisung away from the building?

'You're clearly doing something because this is the second time-'

'Second time? This has happened before?' This was a known issue? Why hadn't Jisung said anything about it before?

The witch opened his mouth, probably to spit something snarky back, then closed it, ‘Never you mind about that. You just did something to my energy and I want it back.’

‘How can I give it back if I don’t know what I did?’ 

Jisung ripped his arm from Changbin’s hold as if he had burned him, staring at where he had been grabbed. ‘I-’ He pointed at a pebble, and it floated into his hand. ‘What-’

‘Your energy is fine now, right?’

‘It- you-’ The pebble turned to ash.

‘Jisungie-’

‘No. Stay away. Don't touch me. Just-’ Jisung looked like he wanted to hit Changbin. His arm was drawn back, he was in a crouched position, and his eyes- his eyes healed more fear than anything. Whatever he did had freaked Jisung the fuck out, and now he wanted nothing to do with Changbin. Fantabulous. Piss off your new potential flatmate and make him wary of you. Gold star. 

Jisung ran. Ok, saying he ran off might have been a stretch, but he turned away and started walking briskly in a direction that was very clearly away from Changbin, hell knows what would have happened to his kneecaps if he tried to follow the witch. 

What next in his mental to-do list? Vibe check his apartment?

Uhh, well...check?

Piss off Jisung? Sure. Check.

Find a new place to live... Well, that was a box he had to now, _uncheck_.

**Author's Note:**

> I made a [CC!](https://curiouscat.me/FForku)


End file.
